I feel she is alive and I know she needs us
Weeks after Amelia Earhart's disappearance, a young fan sends some words of support
On this day in 1937, five years after becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, 39-year-old aviatrix Amelia Earhart disappeared over the Pacific Ocean as she attempted to circumnavigate the globe in a Lockheed Model 10 Electra. Despite multiple search efforts, neither Earhart or her navigator Fred Noonan were ever found. Weeks after the pair’s disappearance, Earhart’s husband, George Putnam, received the following letter of support from a distraught schoolgirl named Alicia Curnutt.
July 23, 1937
Dear Mr. Putman,
A tall slender girl stepped out of her airplane and smiled to the waiting reporters then turned and walked toward the hangar with her navigator and friend. I had seen Amelia Earhart! The thought sent blood rushing through my body. Shortly afterwards when she was alone; I ran joyishly up to her and asked for her autograph. Yes! It was her smiling at me. I trembled and sighed: “I sure wish I was going with you, Miss Earhart on your trip around the world.” Her smile dimmed and seriously she said: “It is not going to be so easy.” I wanted to talk to her more than anything else in the world, so I decided to wait and see if I could get her alone again. I watched and finally she walked out of the gate and I ran up to her. I told her of my desire to be like her and asked about the plans for of her globe trot. Her voice so low and pleasant was music to my ears. The words she said to me will always be treasured as long as I live. I knew that if I could be just like Amelia Earhart I would be the happiest person alive. I dreamed about her but she was greater and better than my simple dreams could ever make her.
Then that tragic day of July 2, 1937! When my sister told me Amelia was missing, I stared at her and a lump came to my throat. It seemed impossible for Amelia to be gone. Each radio broadcast I expected them to have found her. Four days later I went to the hospital to have my Appendix operated on. The only thing I wanted to hear was that Amelia had been found and what casual remark she would have to say. And yet the days dragged by without news of any kind. I wanted to choke the Navy for not finding her. I wanted to know her with all my heart yet I felt as if I knew her like a sister. I know that if I had a seaplane I would have gone out July 2, and I know I would have found her somewhere. If only they had found some evidence that she was alive or dead I could rest in peace. I feel she is alive and I know she needs us. I am only fifteen and a Junior in High School in Glendale.
On the walls above my desk are pictures of Amelia. Every time I look at them I wonder if she is alive what she is doing. The highest compliment my friends can give me is that they think I look like her. There are the same number of letters in my name and Amelia’s. My fondest hope is being like Amelia in every way possible. She will always be in my thoughts as the greatest American. I think you can understand why I will always regard Amelia too good to live on this earth. I wrote this letter to tell you how much your wife means to me. I wanted you to know that there are so many other people all over the world who love and miss her like you do.
I hope always to remain Amelia’s fondest fan,
Sincerely,
Alicia CurnuttP.S. As soon as I finish school I intend to take up flying as a career and within a few years intend to duplicate Amelia’s flight with fewer stops.
PREVIOUSLY…
I believe flyers should be permitted the same privileges as writers or actresses
Pioneering aviatrix Amelia Earhart was fiercely independent and wanted nothing to block her life’s path, marriage included. On the morning of her wedding on 7th February 1931, Earhart wrote the following letter to her fiancé and publicist, George Putnam, and reiterated her “reluctance to marry.” He later called it “brutal in its frankness but beautiful in its honesty.”
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Where, oh, where is Alicia Curnutt? I hope she was able to overstep the limitations put on women in her age and to fulfill her dreams. And as for Amelia, how brave of her to write it out in black and white. And how reassuring to me, an old lady who didn't get to do what I wanted because I didn't have that Y chromosome, that these letters were saved so that you could share them with us.
Beautiful, heartfelt letter, with all the feeling that youth could endow it with.