Dorothy Layne McIntyre

Dorothy Arlene Layne McIntyre (27 January 1917 – 30 August 2015) was an African-American aviator and educator. In 1940, she became the first African-American woman to receive a pilot's license from the Civil Aeronautics Authority.

Biography Dorothy Arlene Layne was born in Le Roy, New York in 1917. Dorothy's mother died when she was five years old. She was raised by her widowed father who managed a farm and her grandparents, who urged her and her sister Ruth to get an education. As a child, her father would take her to airshows at the local Le Roy Airport, where she would take her first flight in an airplane aged 11 or 12.

Layne was reportedly an excellent student, graduating from Le Roy High School in 1936. becoming the first Black woman to receive a license. During World War II, she applied to join the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program, but was denied because of her race.

Move to Cleveland In 1942, Layne married Francis Benjamin McIntyre and the pair moved to Cleveland, Ohio.

In 2020, she was featured in "The Changemakers: Rochester Women Who Changed the World," an exhibition at the Rochester Museum and Science Center.