Known for Aviator | Name Marvel Crosson | |
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Died August 1929, Arizona, United States | ||
Marvel Crosson (April 27, 1900 – August 19, 1929) was a pioneer aviator, and the first female pilot to earn a commercial license in the Territory of Alaska. She worked in both California and Alaska, dying in a crash during the very first Powder Puff Derby. She was inducted into the Alaska Women's Hall of Fame in 2011.
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Early life
She was born to Esler Crosson and his wife Elizabeth Wynant Crosson in Warsaw, Indiana, the hometown of Elizabeth Crosson. Brother Joe was born in Minneapolis, Kansas, where the family lived on a ranch. Another sister Zelma was born later. The family relocated to Sterling, Colorado.
Aviation career
In 1922, the Crosson family moved to San Diego, California. Marvel and Joseph became fascinated with aviation and together bought their first airplane, a Curtiss N-9. Joe Crosson moved to the Territory of Alaska to take a job as a pilot. Marvel followed soon afterwards, and earned her commercial pilot's license there, the first woman in the territory to do so. She joined her brother in his business, piloting and keeping the equipment in working order. She helped her brother transport a monoplane from San Diego to New York for Hubert Wilkins. After working as a commercial pilot in Alaska, Marvel returned to California. She set an altitude record of 23,996 feet (7,314 m) on May 28, 1929, while piloting a Travel Air Jet J-5.
Death
Marvel Crosson died on August 19, 1929, when her airplane crashed in the Arizona desert on the second day of the Powder Puff Derby that had begun in California. Her body was found several hundred feet from her plane, her parachute unopened. She was entombed at Greenwood Memorial Park in San Diego, California.
Race sponsor National Exchange Club held a nationwide moment of silence in all its clubs to commemorate Crosson's death. A vacant chair represented Crosson at a banquet for the Women's Air Derby in Cleveland, Ohio. She was inducted into the Alaska Women's Hall of Fame in 2011.
