[2][3] On the 30th anniversary of Earhart's disappearance, Pellegreno dropped a wreath in her honor on tiny Howland Island and returned to Oakland, California, completing the 28,000-mile commemorative flight on July 7, 1967.

[4] In 1961, on the day she obtained her private pilot's license, Pellegreno took her mother up for a surprise flight as her first passenger; Mrs. Holtgren was not aware that her daughter had learned to fly.

Koepke owned a twin-engine Lockheed Electra 10 that he was restoring at the time, a sistership to that flown by Amelia Earhart on her fateful world flight in 1937.

[7] After a refueling stop at Nauru in the Pacific, Pellegreno flew to Howland Island, making a tribute fly-over at approximately the same time and on the same day as Earhart and Noonan would have arrived there 30 years before on July 2, 1937.

Exactly 30 years later, Pellegreno found Earhart's flight-planned destination – tiny Howland Island – dropped a wreath, and returned to Oakland on July 7 having completed the 28,000 mile world flight.

Departed Willow Run, Detroit, MI (Pre-Flight), June 7, 1967 D Oakland, CA (Start round-the-world), June 9, 1967 Arrived Oakland, CA (Finish round-the-world), July 7, 1967 Arrived Willow Run, Detroit, MI, July 10, 1967 In 1974 Pellegreno was appointed to the Iowa Aeronautics Commission and also to the Iowa Department of Transportation Commission, the first woman in the nation to serve in that capacity.