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Gene Nora Jessen

Gene Nora Stumbough Jessen (January 10, 1937 – May 21, 2024) was 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 also wrote about flying and the history of women in flight. Together with Wally Funk, Jessen was one of the last two surviving members of Mercury 13, until her death in 2024.

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.

Biography

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Jessen was born in Springfield, Illinois, on January 10, 1937,[1][2][3] and grew up in Chicago.[4] Jessen's father was a bank teller with a seventh grade education. Her mother was a writer.[5] She began flying while in her junior year of high school.[6] 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."[7][8] Jessen attended Oklahoma University (OU), where she continued to fly and also played cello in the school's symphony orchestra.[9] She was also in the school's flight club, known as the "Air Knockers."[10] While still taking classes at OU, in 1959, Jessen became the first woman to work as a flight instructor for the school.[11] During her time at OU, she earned seven collegiate-level flying trophies.[12] Jessen graduated from OU in 1961.[9] Also in 1961, Jessen was one of 13 women to go through astronaut training with the Mercury 13.[13] 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.[14] She was accepted and travelled to the Lovelace Clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico for five days of physical examinations, under the supervision of Dr. Randy Lovelace, who was asked by NASA to help determine the suitability of women to participate in the space program. Lovelace had previously developed a battery of tests for NASA that were administered to the Mercury Seven.[5] After passing the tests, Jessen was invited to participate in the next round of evaluations held in Pensacola, Florida. After her boss disapproved her request to travel to the next phase of testing, quit her job as a flight instructor.[5][14] Days before travelling, she received a telegram stating that the Mercury 13 program was cancelled.[15][8]

Jessen went to work for Beechcraft in 1962 and moved to Wichita, Kansas.[16][12] Jessen would pilot planes for demonstration purposes for the company.[17] She later embarked on a 90-day cross-country flight with fellow pilot, Joyce Case, in a Beechcraft Musketeer airplane.[12][18] She eventually was rated to fly the entire line of their aircraft.[19] 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.[19][20] Jessen spent most of the 70s and 80s raising their son and daughter. Jessen also authored several books documenting the lives and achievements of female aviators.[5]

Jessen was on the women's advisory committee to the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) and had been appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson.[4] Between 1988 and 1990, she was President of the Ninety-Nines.[21] In 2007, Jessen and the other Mercury 13 women received honorary doctorates at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh (UWO).[22] This was the first time they had been honored as a group.[22]

In 2017, Jessen began to experience macular degeneration in her left eye and was forced to stop flying.[8]

Jessen died on May 21, 2024, in Meridian, Idaho at the age of 87.[5][23][24]

Writing

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Jessen's 2018 book, Sky Girls, is a chronicle of the 1929 Powder Puff Derby.[25] Jessen personally interviewed many of the original pilots who flew in the race.[25] Sky Girls was previously published under the title The Powder Puff Derby of 1929.[26] Publishers Weekly called the first version of the book a "well-wrought bit of Americana."[27]

Selected bibliography

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  • 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

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  1. ^ "Gene Nora Jessen: Much More than the Woman in Space Program". National Air and Space Museum. April 23, 2024. Retrieved May 30, 2024.
  2. ^ "Gene Nora Jessen, the "Mercury 13" Pilot Never Wanted to Fly in Space". March 12, 2020.
  3. ^ "Gene Nora Stumbough Jessen Papers". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved May 30, 2024.
  4. ^ a b Duffy, Beverley (November 19, 1964). "Women Find Flying Easy, Aviatrix Says". The Gazette. p. 18. Retrieved March 21, 2020.
  5. ^ a b c d e Mooallem, Jon. "A Pioneering Aviator and 'Astro-Not'". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved June 25, 2024.
  6. ^ "Coed Pilot Named New 'Sky Queen' at Flying Meet". The Oklahoma Daily. May 7, 1957. p. 5. Retrieved March 20, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ a b "Roll Call: News and Events in the Lives of Sooner Alumni" (PDF). Sooner Magazine: 22. October 1963.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ "Coed Teaches Students to Fly". The Oklahoma Daily. October 30, 1959. p. 10. Retrieved March 20, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ a b c "They're Up in the Air". Quad-City Times. October 5, 1962. p. 30. Retrieved March 20, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "The U.S. Team is Still Warming Up the Bench". LIFE. Vol. 54, no. 26. June 28, 1963. p. 32.
  14. ^ 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.
  15. ^ "Woman Pilots Lack Know-How to be Lady Astronauts". Tyler Morning Telegraph. June 28, 1963. p. 6. Retrieved March 20, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "To Describe Her Training as Astronaut". The Gazette. November 15, 1964. p. 8. Retrieved March 20, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ "New Beech Airplane". The News Journal. September 11, 1962. p. 45. Retrieved March 20, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ "'Musketeers' to Land Here". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. September 10, 1962. p. 29. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
  19. ^ a b "Gene Nora Sumbough Jessen". Mercury 13. Archived from the original on April 27, 2016. Retrieved March 21, 2020.
  20. ^ "Idaho Aviation Hall of Fame". Idaho Aviation Association. Archived from the original on May 12, 2019. Retrieved March 21, 2020.
  21. ^ Roe, Bobbi (July 2007). "Mercury 13 Receive Honorary Doctorates From the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh" (PDF). 99 News. 33 (4): 7.
  22. ^ 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.
  23. ^ Godlewski, Meg (May 28, 2024). "Remembering the Legacy of Gene Nora Jessen". FLYING Magazine. Retrieved May 29, 2024.
  24. ^ "Gene Nora Jessen Obituary - 2024 - Nampa Funeral Home Yraguen Chapel". Tribute Archive. Retrieved May 30, 2024.
  25. ^ a b Siegel, Henrey (2019). "Sky Girls". Aviation History. 29 (5): 68 – via EBSCOhost.
  26. ^ 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.
  27. ^ "The Powder Puff Derby of 1929: The First All Women's Transcontinental Air Race". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved March 21, 2020.
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