Ellen Church

Ellen Church, who lived from 22 September 1904 to 22 August 1965, was the first female flight attendant. She was a trained nurse and a pilot, and she wanted to pilot commercial aircraft, but those jobs were not open to women. Still wanting to fly, she worked to convince Boeing Air Transport that using nurses as flight stewardesses would increase safety and help persuade passengers that flying was safe. The first flight with these nurse stewardesses took off on 15 May 1930. The source lead is short and gives no place of birth, later career or further detail about the airline or the aircraft involved.