Neta Snook

Neta Snook Southern was a pioneer aviator who achieved a long list of firsts. She was the first woman aviator in Iowa, first woman student accepted at the Curtiss Flying School in Virginia, first woman aviator to run her own aviation business and first woman to run a commercial airfield. Yet Snooky, as her friends called her, was fated to be remembered for her relationship to Amelia Earhart. Her autobiography I Taught Amelia to Fly aptly captures the essence of her fame, she was forever linked to the Earhart mystique as her first instructor.

Mary Neta Snook was born on February 14, 1896 in Mount Carroll, Illinois. She was interested in machinery at an early age, spurred by a fascination with her fathers automobiles. At the age of four, she would sit on her fathers lap and help him steer his Stanley Steamer on the hills of their Illinois town. As she grew older, he taught her the inner workings of cars. Snook attended the Frances Shimer School, which later became Shimer College, graduating in 1912.

Source: Wikipedia