Wells, Fay Gillis (1908–2002)

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Wells, Fay Gillis (1908–2002)

American aviator and journalist. Born Fay Gillis, Oct 15, 1908, in Minneapolis, MN; died Dec 2, 2002, in Fairfax, VA; m. Ellery Walter (writer); m. Linton Wells (foreign correspondent); children: Linton II (b. 1946).

Became member of Caterpillar Club after making a parachute jump to safety (1929); was 1st American woman to fly a Soviet airplane and 1st foreigner to own a Soviet glider; was a charter member of Ninety Nines (group of women fliers); served as correspondent for The Herald Tribune; sent with 2nd husband to Africa by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on secret mission to look for possible location for postwar Jewish homeland (1941); served as White House reporter for Storer Broadcasting Co.; was among 3 women reporters who traveled with President Richard M. Nixon to China (1972); landed a plane on her 92nd birthday.

See also Lillian F. Brinnon and Howard J. Fried, Fay Gillis Wells: In the Air and On the Air (Woodfield Press, 2002).

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Wells, Fay Gillis (1908–2002)

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