Amelia Earhart :: Biography Biographies

Amelia Earhart Amelia Earhart is one of the worlds greatest aviators, heroes, women, and all around person. She wasn't afraid of the things people said about Women not being aviators. She broke the stereo type boundaries and let the world know that she was not afraid of being a one of the best aviators of our time. Amelia was born in her grandparents house on July 24,1897. Her Father Edwin Earhart was working for a law practice in Kansas city during this time. Amelia didn't know that 2 1/2 years later she would have a sister named Muriel with the nickname Pidge. Amelia and Pidge were born into a life of privilege through their grandparents. They both attended a private school and took pleasure in their life of leisure. There grandfather was not impressed, though, with his son in law Edwin, the girls father. He apparently failed to live up to his father in laws social and financial expectations. Her Mother and Father moved to Des Moines in 1905 leaving the girls with their grandparents. The girls moved back to their parents in Des Moines in 1908. Amelia saw her first airplane when she was ten years old at the Iowa State fair. In her words she said "It was a thing made of wire and not all that interesting..."She took more interest in the Hat that she purchased at the fair. It would be almost ten years until Amelia's interest in aviation would unfold. Amelia father was promoted in 1909 and their conditions of living improved greatly. But Edwin had begun to drink and soon it became apparent to Amelia that her father was a drunkard. It also became apparent to family and friends. Finally in 1914 Amelia, Pidge and her mother left her father and he was fired and went to live with some friends in Chicago. There social life dropped and they became a subject of pity. Amy took money out of a trust fund to support Amelia and her sister through a prepatory school for collage. Amelia decided to train to become a nurse and served as a Voluntary Aid Detachment until the Armistices in November 1918.In her words she said: "There for the first time I realized what the World War meant."She also told about the horrible things that she saw like men without arms or legs, blind men, and even Paralyzed men. In the fall of 1919 Amelia enrolled as a pre- med student at Columbia University .