DALTON — By Mark Pace
At least one Daltonian had met a famous woman who later would receive worldwide news attention. About mid-June, 1932, Miss Mary Louise Horan, a former writer for The Dalton Citizen, would have another reaction over an attractive young female aviator pilot she had met while on a Democratic Party political convention in Washington, D.C.
Historically, Miss Horan’s reaction in greeting that pilot, Amelia Earhart, in June, 1932, indeed had to be one of pleasure. Three years later, however, in 1937, surely her surprised joy of meeting Earhart would crash in sorrow. That was the year that Earhart, who had become a world-famous female pilot, was reported missing in the Pacific on her proposed around-the-world flight attempt .
In a letter from Miss Horan to Miss Emery Kirby, postmarked June 28, 1932, from the Continental Hotel, Washington, D.C., was this paragraph:
“Last week Amelia Earhart was introduced to the House of Representatives, so we went over to see the lady. She was rather attractive, and nicer looking than her pictures had led me to think. Tiny does not half express her size. She is positively the smallest thing in diameter I nearly ever saw, but we had to remark on the fact that she does not look frail.”
There is no apparent evidence that any other local citizen had ever seen Amelia Earhart in person. However, it is obvious that people all over this country were shocked and saddened to read and hear of her final flight that erased forever her willingness and desire to establish world-setting records as she accepted the challenge of womanhood’s courage and ambition to scan the skies in the wild blue yonder.
For instance, I easily recall my admiration for Amelia Earhart that dates back to my high school days. I was astounded to hear the report and all the stories and acclamations of her courage and ability for a successful feminine flight across the Atlantic Ocean. In spite of that early accomplishment, there remains a question over whether her Pacific flight ended in a fatal crash into the sea, or whether she and her navigator, Fred Noonan, were captured by the Japanese.
This feeling yet prevails with many. However, with her radio communications that reported her airplane was running low on gas, there remains the mysterious and unresolved question of disappearance. Was she and her navigator killed in a crash at sea, or did they successfully land on an island, later to be captured by some Japanese or other foreign forces?
Miss Kirby, recipient of Miss Horan’s 1932 letter from Washington, D.C., was a popular member of the Dalton Public Schools. She served for many years in the era when Frank Manly was chairman of the school board, and was a close friend to Miss Horan, who frequently wrote for the weekly Dalton Citizen. Following Earhart’s mysterious disappearance, Misses Horan and Kirby obviously had much discussions about the finality of such a disaster.
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