Edna Christofferson was the daughter of Martin and Mary Elizabeth Bissner, immigrants from Alsace-Lorraine.

[1] Upon arriving in the United States, they settled in Pipestone County, Minnesota, where Edna was born in 1886.

On September 1, 1912, Silas Christofferson made the first hydroplane flight in Oregon, taking off from Oaks Amusement Park.

[11] Edna Becker and Silas Christofferson were married on November 19, 1912, at the King Hill apartments in Portland.

[14] An hour after the ceremony, they made a honeymoon flight over the Willamette Valley that lasted thirty minutes.

[1] The school, which relocated to Redwood City in 1914,[1] attracted students from around the world and trained several female pilots.

[16] After she made a mistake while volplaning, Silas refused to give her further lessons "until she should prove capacity to do the right thing at the time of emergency.

"[19] After the Christoffersons' friend Lincoln Beachey was killed in 1915, she organized a ceremony to commemorate the one-year anniversary of his death.

[22] Edna arranged for him to be buried alongside Lincoln Beachey in the Cypress Lawn Cemetery.

[1] She acted as an expert witness in at least one criminal trial, examining the defendant in her capacity as an Radiographic specialist.

[27] Participants included members of the Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, and Victoria police departments.

[27] Christofferson believed that "a pistol, and a knowledge of its operation, is the best possible means of home protection for a woman.

[27] The club had fifteen charter members, including Christofferson's sister-in-law, Ethel Bissner.

[27] She was awarded a medal for expert shooting by the United States Department of War[27] after achieving a rating of 85% at the army course in Vancouver, Washington.

[29] Christofferson traveled to New York in 1928, where she took part in a police shooting competition and scored 96 out of 100 possible points.

[34] The two were hoping to find the lost steamship SS Baychimo, which held a cargo of valuable furs.

[34] En route to Atlin, British Columbia, head winds and lack of fuel forced them to make an emergency landing.

[34] They spent ten days camped on an uncharted lake, enduring temperatures as low as -40 degrees Fahrenheit, before they were rescued by pilot Stanley McMillan.

[34] Though they did not find the ship, Christofferson staked two gold claims in the Kougarok district near Nome.