Born Gladys Rhodes, Penny Thompson watched planes fly over her family's farm in Sylvania, Georgia, as a young girl.

[3] During World War II, she joined the Civil Air Patrol as a volunteer and flew over the Gulf of Mexico searching for German submarines that were attacking Allied merchant ships.

[3] Today, the Larry and Penny Thompson Memorial Park is located on the same property that originally encompassed the Naval Air Station.

Proceeds were used to help young women obtain advanced aviation training through the Amelia Earhart Scholarship Fund.

[14] Penny played a role during this period in helping to elevate women in the male-dominated world of aviation [15] and getting women fliers back into the men's All-American Air Maneuvers the next year, in large part due to the success of the 1947 All-Woman Air Show.

In 1949 Penny and Ellen Gilmore flew an experimental "flying car" called the Roadable Ercoupe, as part of the Montreal-Miami All-Woman's Air Race, which culminated with the 3rd Annual All-Woman Air Show of the World in West Palm Beach, Florida.

While they didn't win any prizes because the rules stated flying had to be during the day, their goal of obtaining national publicity for women pilots in general and the women's air show in particular, was successful.,[18][19][20][21][22] Their trip was featured in the nationally syndicated Smilin' Jack aviation comic strip by Zack Mosley with "Miss Penny-Ellen" drawn on the comic strips's flying car.

[23] Several years later, Penny was interviewed by humorist Larry Thompson and reporter for the Miami Herald, who was doing a story on women in aviation.