Mary Goodrich Jenson (November 6, 1907 – January 4, 2004) was an early woman aviator and journalist who became the first woman in Connecticut to earn a pilot's license and the first woman to fly solo to

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. She was inducted into the

Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame The Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame (CWHF) recognizes women natives or residents of the U.S. state of Connecticut for their significant achievements or statewide contributions. The CWHF had its beginnings in 1993 when a group of volunteers partn ...

in 2000.

Education and personal life

Mary Goodrich was born in Hartford, Connecticut on November 6, 1907 to Ella E. (Reed) Goodrich and James Raymond Goodrich. Her grandfather Elizur Stillman Goodrich ran the Hartford–New York Steamboat Company and the Hartford–Wethersfield Horse Railway. She attended the Collegio Gazzola in Verona, Italy, and

Gibbs College Katharine Gibbs College was a for-profit institution of higher learning based in the United States of America, founded by Katharine Gibbs. As the Providence School in Rhode Island, it was founded in 1911 as an institution for the career educatio ...

before moving on to

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. In 1940, she married Carl D. Jenson, with whom she had two children.

Career as pilot and journalist

Jenson earned her pilot's license in 1927, at the age of 20, thereby becoming the first woman in Connecticut to achieve that milestone. While she was still training for her pilot's license, she also pursued a career in journalism. The '' Hartford Courant'' hired her as its first aviation editor on condition that she obtain her pilot's license before a rival reporter for the ''Hartford Times'', which she did. She would later become the first woman to have a bylined column in the paper. A year after obtaining her license, Jenson bought her first plane, a

Fairchild KR-21 The Kreider-Reisner KR-21-A was a 1928 American two-seat monoplane. It was designed and built by the Kreider-Reisner Aircraft Company of Hagerstown, Maryland. Fairchild Aircraft took over Kreider-Reisner in 1929 and continued to build them, as th ...

single-engine biplane. She competed in air shows in events such as racing and "bomb throwing," which involved dropping bags of flour at ground targets. In the late 1920s, a group of women pilots formed a national organization called the

Ninety-Nines The Ninety-Nines: International Organization of Women Pilots, also known as The 99s, is an international organization that provides networking, mentoring, and flight scholarship opportunities to recreational and professional female pilots. Foun ...

to provide support for women in aviation. Jenson was one of the 99 charter members of the group. Jenson was a director of the short-lived Betsy Ross Air Corps (1929–1933), which was founded during the Depression to support the Army Air Corps, though it was never formally recognized by the U.S. military. Jenson flew her biplane all around the state and around 1933 became the first woman to fly solo to Cuba. Due to failing vision, she lost her flying license after the Cuba trip.

Post-flying career

In 1936, Jenson was a passenger on the Hindenburg airship for a flyover of Hartford during its first and only full year of service. In the later 1930s, Jenson briefly worked for

Walt Disney Productions The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October 1 ...

in California, especially on the film ''

Dumbo ''Dumbo'' is a 1941 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The fourth Disney animated feature film, it is based upon the storyline written by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl, ...

''. It was there that she met her future husband. In 1941, they moved to Wethersfield, Connecticut, where Jenson became heavily involved in civic volunteerism. She founded and served as president for the town's Women's Association and also served on the Board of Education and the Council of Social Agencies of Greater Hartford. Mary Jenson died in Hartford in early 2004.

Legacy

Jenson's family established a memorial fund in her honor at the Wethersfield Historical Society, which holds numerous historical objects and artefacts from Jenson and her family.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jenson, Mary Goodrich 1907 births 2004 deaths American women aviators American women journalists 20th-century American journalists Aviation pioneers Writers from Hartford, Connecticut Columbia University alumni Gibbs College alumni 20th-century American women Burials at Cedar Hill Cemetery (Hartford, Connecticut) 21st-century American women