She learned to fly in a Kinner Fleet bi-plane in 1933 and held a pilot’s certificate until she was 97.

One of eight children born to John W. and Lanie C. Bragg, she joined the WASPs during WWII and was honorably discharged.

Her adventures as a pilot involved everything from Powder Puff Derbies to filling her tank with water instead of gasoline.

[4] The next year she became the first woman to solo a single-engine airplane (a 1939 Piper J-4) up the Alaska Highway.

[1] In 1946, she wed Lewis Lincoln Laska, a merchant and fur dealer in McGrath, Alaska.