Willa Beatrice (Brown) Chappell (1906 - 1992)

Born 22 Jan 1906 in Glasgow, Barren, Kentucky, United States

Wife of Cornelius Robinson Coffey — married 7 Feb 1947 (to before 1955) in Cook, Illinois, United States

Died 18 Jul 1992 at age 86 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States

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Biography

Willa (Brown) Chappell is Notable.

Willa Brown was an aviator, lobbyist, teacher, and civil rights activist. She was the first African-American woman to earn a pilot's license in the United States and the first African-American woman to run for the United States Congress.

Willa Brown was born on 22 January 1906 in Kentucky to Rev. Eric B. Brown^[1] and his wife, Hallie May Carpenter.^[2]

In 1910, Willa and her family were living and farming in Gum Tree, Monroe County, Kentucky. She is the middle child with one older brother and one younger. She and her mother and siblings are all listed as "mulatto." (Willa was enumerated as "William B" on the census. She is listed as a daughter, but the enumerator recorded her name incorrectly.)^[2]

Sometime before 1920, Willa and her family moved to Terre Haute, Indiana,^[3] and in 1932,^[4] Willa graduated from Indiana State Teachers College (now known as Indiana State University) and went on to earn her master aviation certificate from Curtiss-Wright Aeronautical University in 1936, and her Master's degree from Northwestern University in 1938. A year later she received her commercial pilot's license, instructor's rating, and radio license from Coffey School of Aeronautics.

She holds the distinction of being the first African-American woman to earn her pilot's license in the United States.^[5]

Willa died in 1992 and is buried in Lincoln Cemetery in Blue Island, Illinois.^[6]

Sources

1. ↑ Willa Beatrice Brown on Wikipedia.org
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M26F-X47 : accessed 15 August 2020), William B Brown in household of Eric Brown, Gum Tree, Monroe, Kentucky, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 152, sheet 4A, family 66, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 496; FHL microfilm 1,374,509.
3. ↑ "United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MF4T-GGV : accessed 15 August 2020), Willia Brown in household of Eric Brown, Terre Haute Ward 3, Vigo, Indiana, United States; citing ED 134, sheet 11B, line 55, family 283, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992), roll 468; FHL microfilm 1,820,468.
4. ↑ There is information in the referenced article indicating that Willa was a school teacher from 1927-1932; however, it also says that she didn't gradaute from teacher's college until 1932. Was she teaching before she went to college?
5. ↑ “Chappell, Willa B.,” Notable Kentucky African Americans Database, accessed August 15, 2020, http://nkaa.uky.edu/nkaa/items/show/133.
6. ↑ "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVV3-2K2G : 9 June 2021), Willa Beatrice Brown, ; Burial, Blue Island, Cook, Illinois, United States of America, Lincoln Cemetery; citing record ID 7288758, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.