About Fay Gillis Wells
Fay Gillis Wells went non-stop since her father gave her an ultimatum to find something to do. Her first choice -- flying.
Fay Gillis was born on 15 October 1908 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After high school in New Jersey and attendance at Michigan State University, she began the first of her two careers when she received her pilot's license in 1929 and quickly made a hit in the aviation world. She became the first woman pilot member of the Caterpillar Club, after being forced to bail out of a plane the day after her first solo flight. (To be a member, one must parachute from a disabled aircraft to save one's life). After this auspicious beginning, she was hired by the Curtiss Flying Service in Valley Stream, Long Island, demonstrating and selling aircraft across the country. Doing this, she met other aviators, and joined with Amelia Earhart and 97 others to form the Ninety-Nines in 1929.
In the early 30's, she began her second, and equally distinguished career. Her father's business took the family to Russia, and Fay free-lanced from the Soviet Union from 1930 until 1934 for the New York Herald Tribune and many aviation maga-zines. While there, she became the first woman to pilot a Soviet civil aircraft and the first foreigner to own a glider in the Soviet Union. In 1933, she was chosen by Wiley Post to arrange the landing fields and fuel storage logistics for the critical Russian leg of Post's record solo flight around the world.
After eloping with pioneer newsman, Linton Wells, in 1935, they covered the Ethiopian-Italian War for the Herald Tribune. This apparently saved her life, as otherwise she would have accepted Wiley Post's invitation to accompany him on his fatal flight. The Wells' then became the only husband and wife team of foreign correspondents to have front page byline articles side by side. They lived in many of the fascinating and dangerous places in the world of that era.
After a "temporary" retirement in 1946 to raise her son, Fay joined the Storer Broadcasting Company in 1964 as White House correspondent. She spent 13 years covering Presidents Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter. In 1972, she was one of only 3 women selected to accompany Richard Nixon on his historic visit to the People's Republic of China.
Constantly in demand to fill speaking engagements and accepting invitations to all sorts of events, Fay's favorite activity was co-chairing an annual gathering in Atchison, Kansas, birthplace of Amelia Earhart, at the Forest of Friendship, created by the Ninety-Nines to honor many who have been involved in aviation.
She certainly did find something to do. |
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