Ruth Elder

{{short description|American pilot and actress}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}}

{{Infobox person

|name = Ruth Elder

|image = Elder, Ruth.jpg

|caption =

|birth_name =

|birth_date = {{Birth date|1902|9|8}}

|birth_place = Anniston, Alabama, U.S.

|death_date = {{Death date and age|1977|10|09|1902|09|08}}

|death_place = San Francisco, California, U.S.

|spouse = {{ubl

| {{marriage|C.E. Moody
|1920|1922}} ({{abbr|est.|estimate}})

| {{marriage|Lyle Womack
|1925|1928}}

| {{marriage|Walter Camp Jr.|1929|1932}}

| {{marriage|G.K. Thackery
|1932|1932}} (est.)

| {{marriage|A. Arnold Gillespie|1933|1944}}

| {{marriage|Ralph P. King
|1945|1953}} (est.)

| {{marriage||1956}}

}}

|children = 1

|known_for=Early aviation records, including first woman to attempt transatlantic flight; film star

|signature =

| website = {{URL|http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/elder.html}}

}}

Ruth Elder (September 8, 1902{{Snd}}October 9, 1977) was an aviation pioneer and actress.{{cite web|url=http://dmairfield.com/people/elder_ru/ |title=Ruth Elder |website=Davis-Monthan Aviation Field Register |date= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140308052557/http://dmairfield.com/people/elder_ru/ |archive-date=2014-03-08 |url-status=dead |access-date=2025-02-21}}{{Cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19771010&id=XN9NAAAAIBAJ&pg=5885,1378036 |title=Ruth Elder, aviatrix, dies at 73 |newspaper=The Free Lance–Star |place=San Francisco |publication-place=Fredericksburg, Virginia |agency=AP |page=9 |date=1977-10-10 |access-date=2025-02-21 |via=Google News Archive}} She carried private pilot certificate P675, and was known as the "Miss America of Aviation."{{cite web |url=https://parksfield.org/people/elder_ru/ |title=Ruth Elder |website=Parks Airport Register |date= |access-date=2025-02-21}} She was a charter member of the Ninety-Nines.

In October 1927 she took off from New York in the Stinson Detroiter American Girl, with George Haldeman as pilot, in an attempt to become the first woman transatlantic airplane flyer. Mechanical problems caused them to ditch the plane 360 miles from the Azores, but they established a new over-water endurance flight record of 2,623 miles.{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/womenwhofly0000homa/page/46/mode/1up |first1=Lynn M. |last1=Homan |first2=Thomas |last2=Reilly |title=Women Who Fly |publisher=Pelican Publishing Company |isbn= |pages=46–47 |date=2004 |access-date=2025-02-21 |via=Internet Archive |url-access=registration}}"Ruth Elder Hops Off!", Milwaukee Sentinel, October 11, 1927, p1 It was also at the time the longest flight ever made by a woman. Rescued by a ship, she and George were honored with a ticker-tape parade upon their return.Will, G. The Great Atlantic Air Race 2011 pp. 64–67 with photo {{ISBN|9781847172310}}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FrXCYlyb_pQC&q=ruth+elder+two+movies&pg=PA75 |title=A Guide to Historic Lakeland, Florida - Steve Rajtar - Google Books |isbn=9781596292710 |access-date=2014-03-01 |last1=Rajtar |first1=Steve |year=2007 }}{{Dead link|date=February 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

File:Moran of the Marines (1928) 1.jpg

After her flight, she embarked on a series of lucrative speaking engagements and was given a movie contract. She starred in Moran of the Marines (1928) and The Winged Horseman (1929).

In 1929 she entered the first Women's Air Derby, flying in her Swallow, NC8730, and placed fifth.

She married six times. She married Walter Camp, Jr., son of the early football innovator, on August 29, 1929, but filed for divorce in Reno, Nevada, on November 14, 1932.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-bernardino-county-sun-woman-flie/166366690/ |title=Woman Flier Seeks Divorce |newspaper=The San Bernardino Daily Sun |place=Reno, Nevada |agency=United Press |page=4 |date=1932-11-15 |access-date=2025-02-21 |via=Newspapers.com}} Her final union was a remarriage to Ralph P. King, to whom she was married for 21 years and who outlived her.{{Cite book |last=O'Brien |first=Keith |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1014441161 |title=Fly girls : how five daring women defied all odds and made aviation history |date=2018 |isbn=978-1-328-87664-5 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |location=Boston |oclc=1014441161}} She had suffered emphysema for several years before she died. She had one son, William Trent Gillespie (1940-2008), from her marriage to movie effects pioneer A. Arnold Gillespie.{{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20160115200015/http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights-managed/U223815ACME/ruth-elder-and-arnold-gillespie|title=Ruth Elder and Arnold Gillespie|date=January 15, 2016}}

She appears on the May 29, 1952 edition of You Bet Your Life under the name of Ruth King, where she mentions that she is writing her autobiography.

She worked as an executive secretary in the aviation industry in her later career,Associated Press, [http://pictures.historicimages.net/pictures/_10/9808/9807501.jpg photo caption] dated July 16, 1955: "Twenty-eight years after she achieved world fame as the first woman to attempt a transatlantic flight, Ruth Elder works at a desk in Culver City, Calif., as secretary to an aircraft executive." hired by Howard Hughes who had initially forgotten who she was.{{cite news|last1=Bair|first1=Cinnamon|title=Ruth Elder Just Wanted To Soar|url=http://www.theledger.com/news/20070422/ruth-elder-just-wanted-to-soar|access-date=13 February 2017|work=The Ledger (Lakeland FL)|publisher=Gatehouse Media|date=Apr 22, 2007}}

In 2013, an inspirational juvenile book titled Flying Solo: How Ruth Elder Soared into America's Heart was published, written by Julie Cummins and illustrated by Malene R. Laugesen.{{cite book|title=Flying Solo: How Ruth Elder Soared into America's Heart: Julie Cummins, Malene R. Laugesen: 9781596435094: Amazon.com: Books |date=2013-07-23 |isbn=978-1596435094 |last1=Cummins |first1=Julie }} The title character of the Ruth Darrow Flying Stories book series is said be based on Ruth Elder.{{cite web|title=Ruth Darrow Flying Stories|url=http://www.nancydrewsleuth.com/mwbrd.html}} In 2016, her story was told in novelized version in Crossing the Horizon by Laurie Notaro.[http://www.simonandschuster.ca/books/Crossing-the-Horizon/Laurie-Notaro/9781451659405 Crossing the Horizon: A Novel], Simon and Schuster