Leda Richberg-Hornsby

Leda Richberg-Hornsby (November 1886 – August 25, 1939) was an American pilot and suffragist. She was the first female graduate of the Wright Flying School in Dayton, Ohio, and the eighth woman in the United States to receive a pilot's license.

Early life

Leda Richberg-Hornsby was born in November 1886 in Chicago, the youngest of three children, to Eloise Olivia Richberg (née Randall) and John Carl Richberg. Her mother was a physician, professor, writer, and suffragist. Her maternal grandmother, Marenda Briggs Randall, was also a physician and suffragist. Following in the footsteps of her mother and grandmother, she attended medical school for three years, though without completing a degree. In May 1912, while on a trip to Racine, Wisconsin, she met Hubert Primm Hornsby, whom she married on the 23rd of that month, to the surprise of her family. The marriage was unsuccessful and the two soon separated.

Aviation career

Around 1913, Richberg-Hornsby became interested in flying. Following Lillie's death in September 1913, she enrolled in the Wright Flying School in Dayton, where she studied both flying and airplane construction. That June, she passed her licensing test under the supervision of Orville Wright (who described her performance as "The prettiest flying I ever saw a beginner do") and on June 24 she received license No. 301 from the Aero Club of America.

On November 3, 1916, during an exhibition flight at Midland Beach, she suffered an accident when her biplane fell fifty feet. She was accompanied by Ida Blair: welfare worker, businesswoman, and N.A.W.S.A. press publicity leader, who later founded the Women's Democratic Union. The biplane was decorated with streamers of yellow, white, and blue, the suffrage campaign colors, and a banner reading "Women Want Liberty Too." A second attempt, following America's entry into the war, met with the same response. Many of these women were subjected to brutal treatment, and twenty-two, including Hornsby, engaged in a hunger strike. On November 27, she was released along with the twenty-one other hunger-strikers, before the completion of her thirty-day sentence. The music and libretto were written by composer Max Caplan, who attended nearby Union College. The opera opened on June 8, 2018 in Glenville, New York.