Myrtle Cagle

Myrtle "Kay" Thompson Cagle (June 3, 1925 – December 22, 2019) was an American pilot and one of the Mercury 13 female astronauts group. She worked as a flight instructor and wrote about aviation in North Carolina.

Biography

Pre-Mercury 13 Cagle was born on June 3, 1925, in Selma, North Carolina. Cagle had always wanted to fly from a young age. When she "earned her wings" at the age of 14, she was the youngest pilot in North Carolina, Cagle earned her private pilot's license when she was nineteen. Cagle went on to run an airport near Raleigh and her own charter plane service. She earned her Commercial Pilots license with Airplane Single and Multi-Engine Land ratings and Instrument ratings by 1951.

Cagle began writing a column called "Air Currents" in 1946 for the Johnstonian Sun newspaper in Selma. Her wedding dress was made from parachutes. Cagle had 4,300 hours of flying time by the time the program started. Cagle and the twelve other women participants eventually became known as the "Mercury 13." During the program, Cagle was warned by the administrators not to become pregnant. In 1964, she competed in the International Women's Air Race. In 2007, she and eight of the Mercury 13 graduates earned an honorary doctorate from the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh.

Death Cagle died on December 22, 2019.