When she was 7 years old, Violet Cowden watched a hawk swoop down and snatch a chicken from her family’s farm. Awestruck, she instantly realized, “I wanted to fly like that.” And as a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) during World War II, Cowden fulfilled that dream. One day during flight training, an instructor told her she could do whatever she wanted in the sky. So when Cowden spotted a bird farm below, she zoomed down, sending feathers flying everywhere. Afterward, the instructor asked what she’d been up to in the air. Cowden proudly replied: “Sir, I bombed a chicken yard.”
Cowden was born Violet Thurn in a sod house on her parents’ small farm in Bowdle, S.D. She started taking flying lessons while working as a first grade teacher, and “her students always knew when she had been flying because she was so happy,” said the Los Angeles Times. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, in 1941, Cowden wanted to serve her country and, as she’d already earned her private pilot’s license, signed up to the Army Air Corps’ new WASP program.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
In December 1944, the WASP was disbanded as men returning from the front demanded their old jobs back. “I felt a lot of resentment,” said Cowden, who last year was belatedly awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for her wartime service. Unable to find work as a pilot, she moved to Southern California, married, and became a co-owner of a ceramics factory. But she never lost her love of “thrill seeking,” said the Orange County, Calif., Register, and in 2006, at 89, Cowden took part in a tandem skydive with the Army’s parachute team, the Golden Knights. Christine Bonn, who made a 2010 documentary about Cowden, declared that the veteran embodied “all the aspects of the WASP—their spirit of adventure, courage, and can-do spirit.”
-
Film reviews: ‘Wuthering Heights,’ ‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die,’ and ‘Sirat’Feature An inconvenient love torments a would-be couple, a gonzo time traveler seeks to save humanity from AI, and a father’s desperate search goes deeply sideways
-
Political cartoons for February 16Cartoons Monday’s political cartoons include President's Day, a valentine from the Epstein files, and more
-
Regent Hong Kong: a tranquil haven with a prime waterfront spotThe Week Recommends The trendy hotel recently underwent an extensive two-year revamp
-
Catherine O'Hara: The madcap actress who sparkled on ‘SCTV’ and ‘Schitt’s Creek’Feature O'Hara cracked up audiences for more than 50 years
-
Bob Weir: The Grateful Dead guitarist who kept the hippie flameFeature The fan favorite died at 78
-
Brigitte Bardot: the bombshell who embodied the new FranceFeature The actress retired from cinema at 39, and later become known for animal rights activism and anti-Muslim bigotry
-
Joanna Trollope: novelist who had a No. 1 bestseller with The Rector’s WifeIn the Spotlight Trollope found fame with intelligent novels about the dramas and dilemmas of modern women
-
Frank Gehry: the architect who made buildings flow like waterFeature The revered building master died at the age of 96
-
R&B singer D’AngeloFeature A reclusive visionary who transformed the genre
-
Kiss guitarist Ace FrehleyFeature The rocker who shot fireworks from his guitar
-
Robert Redford: the Hollywood icon who founded the Sundance Film FestivalFeature Redford’s most lasting influence may have been as the man who ‘invigorated American independent cinema’ through Sundance
