Opal Pearl (Richardson) Anderson (1906 - 1994)

Born 17 Aug 1906 in Reedville, Carter, Kentucky, United States

Died 8 Jan 1994 at age 87 in Ontario, San Bernardino, California, United States

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Biography

Opal was born in 1906. Mother: Mrs Ada Thompson, 615 Pine St, Michigan, IN

In the 1930s, she had married Williard Anderson, had a son and worked for a millinery designer in Chicago. Resigned to the fact he couldn’t keep her on the ground for very long, her husband filed for divorce in December 1937. He was called an “air widow” because he said his wife so monopolized the aircraft. She was awarded custody of their son, Norman — and the plane — in an unusual court decision reported in the Chicago Tribune.

Opal Anderson was 35 years old when she applied for service in the Air Transport Auxiliary. She had nearly 2300 hours of flight time, which made her one of the most experience American women. When she applied she was employed as a flight instructor in Chicago, IL. At the time Opal was recruited by Jackie Cochran she had a 6 ½ year old son, Norman. Cochran made sure that she made arrangements for the boy's care and had taken steps for his future if she was to have been hurt during her service in England. Opal was an extremely outgoing individual and made friends easily. She was in service with the Air Transport Auxiliary from June 1942 through April 1945.^[1]

Post-WWII, Opal moved to Ontario in 1951, worked in Hollywood as a hat maker and also for General Dynamics in Pomona, continued to fly until the 1970s and then renovated aircraft and pony carts in California.

She married Malcolm Averitt of Pomona in 1962 but they divorced in 1970.

She died in Ontario, California on 8 Jan 1994. ^[2]

Find A Grave: Memorial #149733406

Sources

1. ↑ http://www.airtransportaux.com/members/anderson.htmlwww.airtransportaux.com profile
2. ↑ "California Death Index, 1940-1997," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VPVF-B3G : 26 November 2014), Opal Pearl Anderson, 08 Jan 1994; Department of Public Health Services, Sacramento.

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