Gene Nora Jessen

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Mercury 13 women attend STS-63 launch
Visiting the space center in 1995 as invited guests of STS-63 Pilot Eileen Collins are (from left) Gene Nora Jessen; Wally Funk; Jerrie Cobb; Jerri Truhill; Sarah Ratley; Myrtle Cagle and Bernice Steadman.

Gene Nora Stumbough Jessen (born 1937[1]) is an American aviator and a member of Mercury 13. Jessen worked throughout her career as a flight instructor, demonstration pilot, advisor to the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) and president of the Ninety-Nines. Jessen has also written about flying and the history of women in flight. Together with Wally Funk, Jessen is one of the last two surviving members of Mercury 13.

Biography[edit]

Jessen grew up in Chicago.[2] Jessen began flying while in her junior year of high school.[3] During that time, she joined the Civil Air Patrol, where one of the students she flew with allowed her to fly the plane sometimes and told her that she was a "natural."[4][5] Jessen attended Oklahoma University (OU), where she continued to fly and also played cello in the school's symphony orchestra.[6] She was also in the school's flight club, known as the "Air Knockers."[7] While still taking classes at OU, in 1959, Jessen became the first woman to work as a flight instructor for the school.[8] During her time at OU, she earned seven collegiate-level flying trophies.[9] Jessen graduated from OU in 1961.[6] Also in 1961, Jessen was one of 13 women to go through astronaut training with the Mercury 13.[10] Wally Funk was the person who told Jessen about the astronaut testing and soon after finding out about the program, Jessen applied with her flying credentials.[11] She was accepted and quit her job as a flight instructor.[11] After passing the tests,[12] she was set to go to Florida for Navy training, but the project was cancelled.[5]

Jessen went to work for Beechcraft in 1962 and moved to Wichita, Kansas.[13][9] Jessen would pilot planes for demonstration purposes for the company.[14] She later embarked on a 90-day cross-country flight with fellow pilot, Joyce Case, in a Beechcraft Musketeer airplane.[9][15] She eventually was rated to fly the entire line of their aircraft.[16] She met her husband, Bob Jessen, at Beechcraft and after their marriage, they moved to Boise, Idaho in 1967 where they established their own Beechcraft dealership.[16][17]

Jessen was on the women's advisory committee to the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) and had been appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson.[2] Between 1988 and 1990, she was President of the Ninety-Nines.[18] In 2007, Jessen and the other Mercury 13 women received honorary doctorates at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh (UWO).[19] This was the first time they had been honored as a group.[19]

In 2017, Jessen began to experience macular degeneration in her left eye and was forced to stop flying.[5]

Writing[edit]

Jessen's 2018 book, Sky Girls, is a chronicle of the 1929 Powder Puff Derby.[20] Jessen personally interviewed many of the original pilots who flew in the race.[20] Sky Girls was previously published under the title The Powder Puff Derby of 1929.[21] Publishers Weekly called the first version of the book a "well-wrought bit of Americana."[22]

Selected bibliography[edit]

  • Sixty and counting: 60th Anniversary Commemorative Collection, 1929–1989. Oklahoma: Ninety-Nines. 1989. OCLC 44424012.
  • The Powder Puff Derby of 1929: The First All Women's Transcontinental Air Race. Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks. 2002. ISBN 978-1-57071-769-7.
  • The Fabulous Flight of the Three Musketeers: A Rollicking Airplane Adventure With a Few Thrills. Charleston, South Carolina: BookSurge Publishing. 2009. ISBN 978-1-4392-3151-7.
  • Sky Girls: The True Story of the First Women's Cross-Country Air Race. Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks. 2018. ISBN 978-1-4926-6447-5.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Gene Nora Jessen, the "Mercury 13" Pilot Never Wanted to Fly in Space". March 12, 2020.
  2. ^ a b Duffy, Beverley (November 19, 1964). "Women Find Flying Easy, Aviatrix Says". The Gazette. p. 18. Retrieved March 21, 2020.
  3. ^ "Coed Pilot Named New 'Sky Queen' at Flying Meet". The Oklahoma Daily. May 7, 1957. p. 5. Retrieved March 20, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ Sanders, Flo (May 29, 1957). "A 'Natural' -- That's OU's Sky Queen". The Norman Transcript. p. 4. Retrieved March 20, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ a b c Godlewski, Nina (April 16, 2018). "Mercury 13: Gene Nora Jessen on Netflix's new documentary about the women who were tested for spaceflight in 1961". Newsweek. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
  6. ^ a b "Roll Call: News and Events in the Lives of Sooner Alumni" (PDF). Sooner Magazine: 22. October 1963.
  7. ^ Billingsley, Ann (November 12, 1957). "Students With 'Flying Bug' Join 'Air Knockers' Club". The Oklahoma Daily. p. 3. Retrieved March 20, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ "Coed Teaches Students to Fly". The Oklahoma Daily. October 30, 1959. p. 10. Retrieved March 20, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ a b c "They're Up in the Air". Quad-City Times. October 5, 1962. p. 30. Retrieved March 20, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "The U.S. Team is Still Warming Up the Bench". LIFE. Vol. 54, no. 26. June 28, 1963. p. 32.
  11. ^ a b Ackmann, Martha (2003). The Mercury 13: The Untold Story of Thirteen American Women and the Dream of Space Flight. New York: Random House Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-58836-037-3.
  12. ^ "Woman Pilots Lack Know-How to be Lady Astronauts". Tyler Morning Telegraph. June 28, 1963. p. 6. Retrieved March 20, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "To Describe Her Training as Astronaut". The Gazette. November 15, 1964. p. 8. Retrieved March 20, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ "New Beech Airplane". The News Journal. September 11, 1962. p. 45. Retrieved March 20, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "'Musketeers' to Land Here". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. September 10, 1962. p. 29. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
  16. ^ a b "Gene Nora Sumbough Jessen". Mercury 13. Archived from the original on April 27, 2016. Retrieved March 21, 2020.
  17. ^ "Idaho Aviation Hall of Fame". Idaho Aviation Association. Archived from the original on May 12, 2019. Retrieved March 21, 2020.
  18. ^ Roe, Bobbi (July 2007). "Mercury 13 Receive Honorary Doctorates From the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh" (PDF). 99 News. 33 (4): 7.
  19. ^ a b Wolff, Patricia (May 12, 2007). "Mercury 13 Land at UWO". The Oshkosh Northwestern. p. 1. Retrieved March 21, 2020 – via Newspapers.com. and "Mercury 13: Women to Receive Honorary Doctorates at UWO". The Oshkosh Northwestern. May 12, 2007. p. 3. Retrieved March 21, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ a b Siegel, Henrey (2019). "Sky Girls". Aviation History. 29 (5): 68 – via EBSCOhost.
  21. ^ Jessen, Gene Nora (2018). Sky girls: the true story of the first women's cross-country air race. Sourcebooks, Incorporated. ISBN 978-1-4926-6447-5. OCLC 1064663847.
  22. ^ "The Powder Puff Derby of 1929: The First All Women's Transcontinental Air Race". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved March 21, 2020.

External links[edit]


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