Evelyn Sharp (aviator)


Evelyn Genevieve "Sharpie" Sharp was an American aviator.

Early life

Born Lois Genevieve Crouse on October 1, 1919 in Melstone, Montana, to Elsie Adelie Haeske Crouse and Orla Crouse, she was adopted by John and Mary Sharp two months later, on December 22, 1919 and her name was changed to Evelyn Genevieve Sharp.
The Sharps moved to Ord, Nebraska, in 1924 and opened a grocery store. In 1928 Sharp purchased a ranch and tried ranching for a time, but within a year sold the ranch and returned to Ord, where he opened a cafe and offered rooms to let.

Introduction to aviation

In 1935, when Evelyn Sharp was sixteen, Jack Jefford opened a flying school in Ord and rented a room from the Sharps. Unable to pay his rent at one point, he offered to teach Evelyn how to fly instead. After 25 lessons over the course of 13 months, she soloed in an Aeronca C-3 on March 4, 1936.
At eighteen she received her commercial pilot's license and acquired her first airplane with the help of local businessmen. Sharp repaid them with the money earned from barnstorming. She became an airplane instructor at age 20; over 350 men learned to fly under her instruction.
While not the first American female airmail pilot she was certainly among the first.

World War II

Sharp was one of the original Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron pilots with over 3,000 flight hours logged when she joined. The WAFS were soon merged with the Women's Flying Training Detachment to form the Women Airforce Service Pilots.
Sharp died on April 3, 1944 in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, when the P-38 Lightning she was ferrying lost an engine on takeoff from New Cumberland Airport, now Capital City Airport, and crashed. She was 24 years old.

Legacy

At the time of her death she was a squadron commander, only three flights from her fifth rating, the highest certificate then available to women.
She is buried in Ord, Nebraska, where a public airfield, the Evelyn Sharp Field Airport, has been named for her. Every June, Ord celebrates Evelyn Sharp Days in her honor.
In 1992, Sharp was inducted into the Nebraska Aviation Hall of Fame.
In 2018, a memorial to Sharp was dedicated at the Pfeiffer Memorial Arboretum and Nature Preserve in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, at the site of the plane crash.