Fay Gillis Wells (October 15, 1908 – December 2, 2002) was an American pioneer aviator, globe-trotting journalist and a broadcaster.[1]
In 1929, she became one of the first women pilots to bail out of an airplane to save her life[2][1] and helped found theNinety-Nines, the international organization of licensed women pilots. As a journalist she corresponded from the Soviet Union in the 1930s, covered wars and pioneered overseas radio broadcasting with her husband, the reporterLinton Wells, and was aWhite House correspondent from 1963 to 1977.
During the 1930s and 40s she and her husband carried out sensitive government missions, including being "sent by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on a top secret mission to Africa to look for possible postwar homelands for Jews", according to her obituary inThe New York Times.[1] For many years she actively promoted world friendship through flying.
Born inMinneapolis, Minnesota, on October 15, 1908, as Helen Fay Gillis,[1] Fay Gillis Wells grew up in various towns in the US andCanada as her father, Julius H. Gillis, relocated throughout his career as a mining engineer.[2] She graduated fromBattin High School inElizabeth, New Jersey, in 1925, and studied atMichigan State University, but left before graduation to pursue other interests.[3]
In August 1929 she began flying. On September 1, 1929, she became one of the first women pilots to become a member of theCaterpillar Club, bailing out of an airplane to save her life when her plane disintegrated during aerobatics over Long Island.[2] She soon became the first air saleswoman and demonstrator hired by the Curtiss Flying Service. Later that year she helped found the "Ninety Nines," and served as its first secretary, withAmelia Earhart as the first president.[3] At the time of her death she was one of four charter members remaining active.
From 1930 to 1934, while in theSoviet Union with her father, she traveled as a correspondent covering aviation activities for theNew York Herald Tribune, and as a special reporter forThe New York Times andAssociated Press. While there she was the first American woman to fly a Soviet civil airplane and the first foreigner to own a Soviet glider. She also handled the logistics in Russia for famed aviatorWiley Post's solo round-the-world flight in 1933, and was the correspondent forThe New York Times at the coronation of EmperorPu Yi of Manchukuo in 1934.[1][2]
In 1935 she was planning to accompany Post on another round-the-world flight when she eloped with the distinguished foreign correspondent Linton Wells (1893–1976). They spent their honeymoon covering theItalian invasion of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and the Syrian riots for theHerald Tribune. Wiley Post gotWill Rogers to replace her on the flight, on which both later were killed. While in Ethiopia Linton gave Fay a leopard cub for Christmas. They named her The Queen of Sheba, but called her Snooks. Snooks was not the only exotic pet Fay had. Over her life, Fay had two cheetahs, a lemur, and a small fox from the Sahara Desert.[2]
After covering Hollywood for theHerald Tribune in 1936, she and her husband pioneered overseas radio broadcasts from Latin America in 1938 forThe Magic Key of RCA.[4] She was a founding member of theOverseas Press Club and helped establish the Amelia Earhart Memorial Scholarships.
In 1939, at the suggestion of President Roosevelt, she and her husband investigated potential African locations for a Jewish homeland.[1] After the outbreak of the war, they headed the US Commercial Company in West Africa buyingstrategic materials for the war effort.
Returning to the states after the birth of her sonLinton II inLuanda in 1946, she was a full-time mother, living for a time on a houseboat.[3] She designed yacht interiors, wrote a syndicated column called "Nautical Notebook" for theHerald Tribune, and got a patent on a furniture design for boats.
She came to Washington, D.C. in 1963 to open the Washington News Bureau for theStorer Broadcasting Company (then the largest privately owned radio and television network in the US). From 1964 to 1977 she served as Storer's White House correspondent. She was the first female broadcaster accredited to the White House, and one of three women reporters chosen to accompanyPresident Nixon to China in 1972.[2]
During this period she renewed her association with flying and education, beginning with the Amelia Earhart stamp in 1962. She was chairman of the first international 99s convention in 1967 and began encouraging the use of flying and the planting of trees to promote international friendship. In 1976, during the Bicentennial year, this led to the creation of theInternational Forest of Friendship inAtchison, Kansas, Amelia Earhart's home town. From 1976 she served as Co-General Chairman for the annual ceremonies at the Forest, and was actively planning future events at the time of her death. She also worked to establish several scholarship funds.
Fay Gillis Wells received many awards in the fields of aviation and broadcasting. These included:
In 1995,Gene andCarolyn Shoemaker, famous discoverers of comets and asteroids, named Asteroid4820 in her honor.[6]
In 2009, theOverseas Press Club of America established the Fay Gills Wells Award to honor Wells who was a founding member of the organization in 1939.[7]
Hospitalized inFalls Church, Virginia withpneumonia for six days during late November 2002, Wells died there from complications related to the disease on December 2, 2002. She was 94 years old.[3]
She was survived by a brother Ken Gillis, of Franklin, Michigan, her sonLinton Wells II and daughter-in-law Linda M. Wells, of Springfield, Virginia, grandsons Linton Wells III and Frank M. Wells, and several nieces and nephews. The International Forest of Friendship continues as a living memorial to her contributions.
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