Letters from Amelia by Jean L. Backus

Author:Jean L. Backus [Jean L. Backus]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biographies/Women
ISBN: 9781612309835
Publisher: New Word City, Inc.
Published: 2016-09-14T00:00:00+00:00

In the envelope with this letter was a clipping from an unidentified newspaper, reporting that George Bernard Shaw told Amelia Earhart “just what I thought of her, and you had better ask her about it.” Informed that Miss Earhart was at sea on her way to France, the playwright chuckled and said, “That’s just as well.”

After a private reunion aboard the yacht Evadne, Amelia and her husband went by train to Paris, where the pace for the next several days increased cruelly. She was presented with the Cross of the Legion of Honor, attended the Air Races, and laid wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the monument to the Lafayette Escadrille. Crowds gathered to get close, to catch her eye, to pat her cheek or touch her hand or arm or shoulder or her hair, to pull and tug at her clothing as if to tear it off, until she shrank away. She was now and would always be on public display, like it or not.

From Paris the couple went to Rome for private meetings with Mussolini and the Pope, and back to Paris, only to journey a few days later to Brussels for luncheon with the Belgian King and Queen, followed by the presentation of the Cross of Chevalier of the Order of Leopold. Afterward Amelia and George visited Auguste Piccard, and GP suggested the possibility of a stratospheric balloon flight for Amelia with the Belgian pioneer. Nothing ever came of the idea, although Dr. Piccard later visited the Putnams at Rye, and dined there one evening with the Lindberghs.

On June 15, after a civic reception in Le Havre, the Putnams sailed on the lie de France. Three airplanes escorted the liner to sea and dropped flowers on the deck as France’s farewell to Amelia Earhart. She had been away from home for less than a month, and she had not seen her mother and sister for longer than that; but they had taken George’s hint and did not meet the ship when it docked in New York.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.