Aline "Pat" Rhonie Hofheimer Brooks (August 16, 1909 – January 7, 1963) was an American

aviator An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

. Rhonie had several firsts as a pilot and was one of the pioneering women aviation pilots in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. She became one of the first members of the

Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) (also Women's Army Service Pilots or Women's Auxiliary Service Pilots) was a civilian women pilots' organization, whose members were United States federal civil service employees. Members of WASP became t ...

(WAFS). Rhonie also drove an ambulance in France. Rhonie is also known for her aviation history mural which is now located at

Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology (commonly called Vaughn College) is a private college in East Elmhurst, New York, specialized in aviation and engineering education. It is adjacent to LaGuardia Airport but was founded in Newark, New ...

Biography

Aline Rhonie was born as Aline Rhonie Hofheimer in

York, Pennsylvania York (Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Yarrick''), known as the White Rose City (after the symbol of the House of York), is the county seat of York County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the south-central region of the state. The populatio ...

, on August 16, 1909. She was born into the notable Hofheimer family of York township. She moved from York to

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...

at the age of three. Rhonie attended

Dalton School The Dalton School, originally the Children's University School, is a private, coeducational college preparatory school in New York City and a member of both the Ivy Preparatory School League and the New York Interschool. The school is located i ...

in New York. Rhonie married Richard Bamberger, a member of a wealthy New York family, when she was 17. She became interested in flying after helping two pilots who had crash-landed near her grandfather's golf course. She moved to

Reno Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is th ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

, when she was 19. Aline Rhonie learned to fly at the age of 21. She started flying in a

De Havilland Moth The de Havilland Moths were a series of light aircraft, sports planes, and military trainers designed by Geoffrey de Havilland. In the late 1920s and 1930s, they were the most common civilian aircraft flying in Britain, and during that time eve ...

with a Gypsy engine. She received her transport license in 1931, and her English pilot's license in 1936. She was the first American to receive an Irish Commercial license in 1938. Rhonie divorced Bamberger in December 1930 in Reno. After the divorce, she took her middle name, Rhonie, as her last name. A year later, she met a nephew of Lady Astor, Reginal Langhorne Brooks. Brooks was a Marine Corps aviator and was learning

Morse code Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one ...

, which he shared with Rhonie. When they got married in 1933, they flew 17,000 miles in separate planes to their honeymoon, flying through various locations including the West Indies and Mexico. Rhonie was the first woman to fly solo from New York to

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

. Later, in 1937, Brooks divorced Rhonie. During

, she participated in the British war relief effort. She first applied to ferry planes from Britain to France, but since she wasn't British, was rejected. Instead, she started driving an ambulance in France. In 1940, she took leave to raise money to build canteens for Allied pilots working at the war's front lines. She had been made an American liaison officer for the Aero club in France. Rhonie was one of the nine original women who were part of the

(WAFS). After the war, Rhonie learned mural painting from the Mexican painter

Diego Rivera Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, known as Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957), was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the ...

. Rivera taught her how to paint in the

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plast ...

style. Her best known mural is a , fresco representing aviation history at a hangar in

Roosevelt Field Roosevelt Field is a former airport, located east-southeast of Mineola, Long Island, New York. Originally called the Hempstead Plains Aerodrome, or sometimes Hempstead Plains field or the Garden City Aerodrome, it was a training field (Hazel ...

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18 ...

, which has since been relocated to the

Queens, New York Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

. Rhonie did the research for the mural herself and she worked on it between 1934 and 1938. When Rhonie found out that the hangar at Roosevelt Field was going to be destroyed in 1960, she obtained the rights to the mural and convinced Italian fresco expert, Leonetto Tintori, to come to the U.S. to help relocate the mural. After the mural was taken down, she helped restore the panels and then added 25 more portraits. She died on January 7, 1963, in

Palm Beach, Florida Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida. Located on a barrier island in east-central Palm Beach County, the town is separated from several nearby cities including West Palm Beach and Lake Worth Beach by the Intrac ...

, at the age of 54.

Awards and honors

Rhonie won several awards and recognitions, including membership of the French national association of the

Croix de Guerre The ''Croix de Guerre'' (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awa ...

for her service in the

French Red Cross The French Red Cross (french: Croix-Rouge française), or the CRF, is the national Red Cross Society in France founded in 1864 and originally known as the ''Société française de secours aux blessés militaires'' (SSBM). Recognized as a public ...

Médaille de la Reconnaissance française The Medal of French Gratitude (french: "Médaille de la Reconnaissance française") was a French honour medal created on 13 July 1917 and solely awarded to civilians. The medal was created to express gratitude by the French government to all t ...

, and was made a Companion of the Ordre de la Libération. She was inducted into the New Jersey Aviation Hall of Fame in 2010. A collection of her papers was donated to the

National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened its main building on the N ...

of the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Found ...

in 2014.

References

External links

* . {{DEFAULTSORT:Rhonie, Aline 1909 births 1963 deaths Air Transport Auxiliary pilots Aviators from Pennsylvania Companions of the Liberation People from York County, Pennsylvania Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France) American muralists American women painters Women muralists Painters from Pennsylvania 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women artists Women Airforce Service Pilots personnel Military personnel from Pennsylvania