Ramsey County History – Spring 2013: “Aviation Pioneer: Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie:

Aviation Pioneer: Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie
Author: Roger Bergerson

Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie (1902–1975) was the first woman to do a lot of things in American aviation: hold a federal pilot’s license; fly over the Rocky Mountains in a light plane; and serve as a top government aeronautics official. Fairgrave first came to the attention of the public in St. Paul in July 1921, when she set a world parachute jumping record for women. This article is a fascinating biographical profile of Fairgrave Omlie, beginning with her St. Paul childhood and her first adventures in flight, to an aviation career that encompassed stunt flying, disaster aid, pilot training, along with service in the aviation field for Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration in the 1930s. In 1922, she married Vernon Omlie, a fellow pilot, who died in 1936 while a passenger aboard a commercial airliner that crashed in fog near St. Louis. Toward the end of her life, Fairgrave Omlie was a recluse who died in Indianapolis in 1975.
PDF of Bergerson article