LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Jackie Cochran
built 125 days ago
"Jackie Cochran was not an orphan nor was she adopted. She was born May 11, 1906. Jackie was close to her sister Mamie Pittman, and even had Mamie move with her husband Jesse Hydle to her home in Indio, California. Mamie and Jesse lived in DeFuniak Springs, Florida before moving to California. All of Jessie and Mamie's children knew Aunt Jackie. They have family pictures with Jackie and kept many of her letters.
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Jackie Cochran was an exceptional pilot and an exceptional woman. During her lifetime, she received more than 200 awards and trophies and set more speed and altitude records than any other pilot. In addition to her American aviation awards, Cochran ... garnered numerous foreign honors, including the French Legion of Honor and a Gold Medal from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale(FAI). Interestingly, Cochran also excelled in the cosmetics business, which she had continued to run. During the 1950s, the Associated Press voted her "Woman of the Year in Business" two years in a row. And, as if these accomplishments were not enough, she was also a consultant to the U.S. Air Force, the FAA, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and served as a board member for museums and nonprofit organizations.
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After a friend offered her a ride in an aircraft, a thrilled Jackie Cochran began taking flying lessons at Roosevelt Airfield, Long Island in the early 1930s. She learned to fly an airplane in just three weeks. A natural, she quickly soloed and within two years obtained her commercial pilot's license. Odlum, whom she married in 1936 after his divorce, was an astute financier and savvy marketer who recognized the value of publicity for her business. Calling her line of cosmetics "Wings," she flew her own aircraft around the country promoting her products. Years later, Odlum used his Hollywood connections to get Marilyn Monroe to endorse her line of lipstick.
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Jackie Cochran returned from England to read the news about Nancy Love’s WAFS and was very upset. She called General Arnold and met him two days later. General Arnold was very annoyed about the announcement that he did not know about previously. Since it was not possible to reverse Nancy Love’s project, and turn her down as director without bad publicity, Cochran suggested immediately beginning her program as well. Her plan was laid out with much broader scope. She wanted her pilots, less experienced than the ones that directly could join Love’s WAFS, to be militarily trained first.
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Jacqueline "Jackie" Cochran was born as Bessie Lee Pittman in Muscogee, Florida, United States, the youngest of five children of Ira and Mary Pittman. She left her poor family at age 15 to work as a hair dresser, and worked her way up to a prestigious hair salon at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City. She was reportedly married to Jack Cochran at the time, but Pittman, now known as Jacqueline Cochran, insisted that she chose that name to sound more glamorous. In the early 1930s she rode in an aircraft and became interested in aviation. She began taking lessons at Roosevelt Airfield, Long Island, New York, and was flying within three weeks. Two years later, she obtained a commercial pilot's license.
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Jacqueline "Jackie" Cochran was born in 1910 in Pensacola, Florida. Jackie's life changed when she discovered, at the age of six, that the family she had lived with were her foster parents. Her foster family was rearing her for an unknown woman in exchange for a small tract of land. She later learned that her real name may have been Bessie Lee Pittman. She never revealed her foster family's name nor how she received the name Jacqueline. She chose her last name, Cochran, from a phone book.
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Jackie Cochran