Evelyn Sharp (aviator)

Sharp was born Lois Genevieve Crouse on October 1, 1919, in Melstone, Montana, to Elsie Adelie Haeske Crouse and Orla Crouse.Sharpie: The Life Story of Evelyn Sharp, by Diane Ruth Armour Bartels She was adopted by John and Mary Sharp two months later, on December 22, 1919, and her name was changed to Evelyn Genevieve Sharp.

The Sharps moved to Ord, Nebraska, in 1924 and opened a grocery store. In 1928, Orla Sharp purchased a ranch and tried ranching for a time, but within a year sold the ranch and returned to Ord, where he opened a cafe and offered rooms to let.

In 1935, when Sharp was sixteen, Jack Jefford opened a flying school in Ord and rented a room from the Sharps. Unable to pay his rent at one point, he offered to teach Sharp how to fly instead.{{Cite web|url=http://homesteadcongress.blogspot.com/2008/05/evelyn-sharp-special-homesteader-of-her.html|title=Homestead Congress: Evelyn Sharp: A Special Homesteader of Her Time|date=30 May 2008}} After 25 lessons over the course of 13 months, she flew solo in an Aeronca C-3 on March 4, 1936.

At age eighteen, she received her commercial pilot's license and acquired her first airplane with the help of local businessmen. Sharp repaid them with money she earned from barnstorming. She became an airplane instructor at age 20. Over 350 men learned to fly under her instruction.

While not the first American female airmail pilot (Katherine Stinson), she was certainly among the first.{{cite web |url=http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/stinson_bio.html |title=Katherine & Marjorie Stinson, Pioneer Aviatrices |website=www.ctie.monash.edu.au |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020625005817/http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/stinson_bio.html |archive-date=2002-06-25}}

Image:London and Sharp.jpg, Evelyn Sharp wears the gabardine WAFS uniform. The WAFS were disappointed when they had to exchange their uniform for the Santiago Blues worn by the WASPs.]]

Sharp was one of the original Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) pilots, with over 3,000 flight hours logged when she joined. The WAFS (under Nancy Love) were soon merged with the Women's Flying Training Detachment (under Jacqueline Cochran) to form the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP).

Sharp died on April 3, 1944, in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, when the P-38 Lightning she was ferrying lost an engine on takeoff from New Cumberland Airport and crashed. She was 24 years old.

At the time of her death she was a squadron commander, only three flights from her fifth rating, the highest certificate then available to women.

She is buried in Ord, Nebraska, where a public airfield, the Evelyn Sharp Field Airport, has been named for her.{{cite press release |url=http://thekeep.eiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1045&context=press_releases_2001 |title=EIU Invites Public to Meet Women of History |date=February 21, 2001 |page=add 3 |publisher=Eastern Illinois University |accessdate=December 28, 2015}} Every June, Ord celebrates Evelyn Sharp Days in her honor.

In 1992, Sharp was inducted into the Nebraska Aviation Hall of Fame.

In 2018, a memorial to Sharp was dedicated at the Peiffer Memorial Arboretum and Nature Preserve in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, at the site of the plane crash.{{cite news |url=https://www.pennlive.com/news/2018/08/rosemarie_peiffer_evelyn_sharp.html |title=New Cumberland Arboretum, Memorial, Dedicated to Two Pioneering Women |date=August 5, 2018 |publisher=Pennlive.com |accessdate=August 6, 2018}}

On August 26-27, 2023, a pair of Sharp's earrings in the shape of tiny P-38 aircraft were worn at the Guardians of Freedom Air Show in Lincoln, Nebraska, by Air Force Capt. Aimee “Rebel” Fiedler{{cite news |url=https://www.airforceheritageflight.org/news/2022/09/01/aimee-rebel-fiedler-viper-demo-team/ |title=Meet the Pilot: Capt. Aimee 'Rebel' Fiedler |date=September 1, 2022 |publisher=Air Force Heritage Flight Team |accessdate=August 26, 2023}} — an F-16C fighter pilot with the Viper Team.{{cite news |url=https://omaha.com/news/state-regional/earrings-of-nebraska-female-pilot-who-died-in-wwii-to-be-flown-at-air-show/article_f7759368-4372-11ee-8c0b-7fac1182cdbc.html |title=Earrings of Nebraska female pilot who died in WWII to be flown at air show |date=August 25, 2023 |publisher=omaha.com |accessdate=August 26, 2023}}

• Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP)
• United States Army Air Forces

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/sharp.html Collection of articles about Evelyn Sharp]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928091434/http://www.twu.edu/wasp/SharpE.pdf Texas Women's University profile of Evelyn Sharp]
• [http://www.aero.state.ne.us/hofmenu.htm Nebraska Aviation Hall of Fame]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20081207011257/http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=1560 National Museum of the USAF biography of Evelyn Sharp]
• {{Find a Grave|12467}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070627091508/http://www.ninety-nines.org/sharpie.html The Ninety-Nines Sharpie: The Life Story of Evelyn Sharp - Nebraska's Aviatrix]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070707040218/http://wwii-women-pilots.org/WASP_KIA/38KIA.html Short biography of Evelyn Sharp along with the other 38 women who died, serving as WASP pilots during World War II]
• [https://www.pennlive.com/news/2018/08/rosemarie_peiffer_evelyn_sharp.html Article about memorial dedication at crash site]

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Category:1919 births

Category:1944 deaths

Category:Accidental deaths in Pennsylvania

Category:United States Army Air Forces personnel killed in World War II

Category:Aviators from Montana

Category:Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States

Category:People from Musselshell County, Montana

Category:People from Ord, Nebraska

Category:United States airmail pilots

Category:Women Airforce Service Pilots personnel

Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1944