Issue With This Marker?
Report an IssueWilla Brown Chappell (1906-1992)
2398
Barren County Courthouse lawn, Glasgow
This Glasgow native was the first African American woman to earn a pilot’s license in the U.S., 1937. That year, she also earned masters degree from Northwestern Univ. She was first African American officer in Civil Air Patrol(1941) & first American woman to hold both a mechanic’s license & commercial pilot’s license (1943).
Co-founder of National Airmen’s Association of America, which worked to get African Americans into U.S. Air Force. In 1940, she co-founded the Coffey School of Aeronautics which trained black pilots. Some of these pilots became part of the Tuskegee Airmen. She was influential in the integration of the U.S. military in 1948. Presented by the Glasgow B&PW Club
Dedicated July 20, 2013.