Evelyn Sharp

For the British civil servant, see Evelyn Sharp, Baroness Sharp.

Evelyn Genevieve Sharp
Evelyn Sharp sitting on a Vultee basic trainer plane on 7 March 1943
Born	Lois Genevieve Crouse October 1, 1919 Melstone, Montana, U.S.
Died	April 3, 1944 Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation	Aviator
Parents	John and Mary Sharp

Evelyn Genevieve "Sharpie" Sharp (October 1, 1919 – April 3, 1944) was an American aviator.

Early life

Born Lois Genevieve Crouse on October 1, 1919 in Melstone, Montana, she was adopted by John and Mary Sharp two months later. Her family later moved to Ord, Nebraska where she learned to fly at age fourteen and first flew solo at sixteen. At eighteen she received her commercial pilot's license and acquired her first airplane with the help of local businessmen. Sharp repaid them with the money earned from barnstorming. She became an airplane instructor at age 20; over 350 men learned to fly under her instruction. She was the first American female airmail pilot.^{[citation needed]}

World War II

L-R, WAFS Barbara London prepares to take off in the P-51 Mustang, Evelyn Sharp wears the gabardine WAFS uniform. The WAFS were disappointed when they had to exchange their uniform for the Santiago Blues worn by the WASPs.

Sharp was one of the original Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) pilots with over 3,000 flight hours logged when she joined. By then transferred into the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), Sharp died on April 3, 1944 in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania in the crash of a P-38 Lightning; she was 24 years old.

Legacy

At the time of her death she was a squadron commander, only three flights from her fifth rating, the highest certificate then available to women.

She is buried in Ord, Nebraska, where a public airfield, the Evelyn Field Airport, has been named in her honor.

In 1992, Sharp was inducted into the Nebraska Aviation Hall of Fame.

See also

• Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP)
• United States Army Air Forces

External links

• Collection of articles about Evelyn Sharp
• Texas Women's University profile of Evelyn Sharp
• Nebraska Aviation Hall of Fame
• National Museum of the USAF biography of Evelyn Sharp
• findagrave.com of Evelyn Sharp
• The Ninety-Nines Sharpie: The Life Story of Evelyn Sharp - Nebraska's Aviatrix
• Short biography of Evelyn Sharp along with the other 38 women who died, serving as WASP pilots during World War II