EloiseSouth Dakota Certificate of Birth #422572 or Eleanor "Nellie" Zabel Willhite (22 November 1892 – 2 September 1991 ISSN 0361-8676. Retrieved 12 July 2017) an American aviator and aviation pioneer. She was the first deaf woman to earn a pilot's license,Gannon, Jack. 1981. Deaf Heritage–A Narrative History of Deaf America, Silver Spring, MD: National Association of the Deaf, pp. 194–195 (PDF )(PDF ) as well as South Dakota's first female pilot.Nellie Zabel Willhite. Deafpeople.com. Retrieved on 11 November 2011.
Life Willhite was born in Rapid City or Box Elder, South Dakota, to Charley "Pard" Zabel and Lillian Madison Zabel. Willhite became deaf at age two due to measles.Insiders' Guide to South Dakota's ... – Thomas D. Griffith, Dustin D. Floy. dGoogle Books. Retrieved on 11 November 2011. There have been sources that claim she was deafened at age four instead of two. She attended the South Dakota School for the Deaf and worked as a typist in Pierre until she enrolled in an aviation school. Willhite started flying lessons in November 1927, with her dad paying for it. She earned her pilot's license in 1928Powered by Google Docs. Docs.google.com. Retrieved on 11 November 2011. Willhite was the thirteenth to sign up in a class of eighteen and made her first solo flight on 13 January 1928 after getting thirteen hours of instruction. She was the first female pilot to earn a pilot's license in South Dakota.
Willhite was a founding member of the Ninety-Nines, an organization which was founded in 1929 with 99 female pilots as founding members, and is dedicated to the advancement of aviation and support for women in aviation.Amelia Earhar. tGoogle Books. Retrieved on 11 November 2011. Willhite started the first South Dakota chapter of the Ninety-Nines in 1941.South Dakota's First Century of Flight – Norma J. Kraeme. rGoogle Books (25 August 2010). Retrieved on 11 November 2011. She worked as a commercial pilot until 1944 (the first deaf person to do so), carrying airmail. She also worked as a barnstormer, specializing in flour bombing and balloon racing.. Womenaviators.org. Retrieved on 11 November 2011.
Willhite was inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame in 1978 and South Dakota Aviation Hall of Fame shortly before her death in 1991, and her plane the Pard is now on display at the Southern Museum of Flight in Birmingham, Alabama.
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