VIOLA GENTRY - COMMEMORATIVE COVER SIGNED - DOCUMENT 285216
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VIOLA GENTRY
Signed First Day Cover of a US air mail stamp honoring another woman
pilot
First Day Cover signed: "Viola Gentry", 6x3½. First Day Cover signed:
"Happy Landings!/Elisabeth Boselli", 6x3½. FDC in a US air mail series
honoring US female aviator Blanche Stuart Scott. Cachet reproduces a
French-language poster celebrating a 1909 air competition. Postmarked
Hammondsport, New York, December 20, 1980, 28-cent stamp affixed, FIRST DAY
OF ISSUE. Viola Gentry (1906-1959), the first female flyer in North Carolina,
set a non-refueled endurance record for women of over 8 hours in 1927. The
record was best by Bobby Trout the following year, and in 1929 Gentry suffered a
crash and severe injury (and the death of her co-pilot) while attempting to
reclaim the record. Gentry, a close friend of Amelia Earhart, remained an
aviation advocate throughout her life. Pencil note (unknown hand) on verso.
Otherwise fine condition.
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