January, 2011 - Bessie Coleman - Dream Cocktail

Bessie Coleman

Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman was the first female pilot of African American descent and the first person of African American descent to hold an international pilot license. Coleman was born on January 26, 1892 in Atlanta, Texas.  Coleman began school at age six and had to walk four miles each day to her all-black, one-room school. Despite sometimes lacking such materials as chalk and pencils, Coleman was an excellent student.  When she turned eighteen, Coleman took all of her savings and enrolled in the Oklahoma Colored Agricultural and Normal University (now called Langston University) in Langston, Oklahoma. She completed only one term before she ran out of money and was forced to return home.  Coleman knew there was no future for her in her home town, so she went to live with two of her brothers in Chicago and worked at the White Sox Barber Shop as a manicurist. There she heard tales of the world from pilots who were returning home from World War I. She could not gain admission to American flight schools because she was black and a woman and no black U.S. aviator would train her. Robert S. Abbott, founder and publisher of the Chicago Defender, encouraged her to study abroad. On June 15, 1921, Coleman became not only the first African-American woman to earn an international aviation license, but the first African American woman in the world to earn an aviation pilot's license.  "Queen Bess," as she was known, was a highly popular draw for the next five years. She made her first appearance in an American airshow on September 3, 1922. On April 30, 1926, Coleman, was in Jacksonville, Florida. Her mechanic and publicity agent, William Wills, was flying the plane with Coleman in the other seat. Coleman did not put on her seatbelt because she was planning a parachute jump for the next day and wanted to look over the cockpit to examine the terrain. About ten minutes into the flight, the plane did not pull out of a planned nosedive; instead it accelerated into a tailspin. Coleman was thrown from the plane at 500 feet and died instantly when she hit the ground. William Wills was unable to gain control of the plane and it plummeted to the ground. Wills died upon impact and the plane burst into flames. Although the wreckage of the plane was badly burned, it was later discovered that a wrench used to service the engine had slid into the gearbox and jammed it, causing the plane to spin out of control. Experts noted at the time that gears in more modern planes had a protective covering — an accident like this need not have happened.

The Drink

Dream Cocktail - (REM makes their tv debut on Letterman in 1983)

1 ½ oz brandy
¾ oz orange curacao
¼ anisette

Drinkability:  2 if you don't like licorice, 4 if you do
Drunkability: 4
Taxic Diversity:  2

Accessibility:  3
Priority of Conservation: NO! - except OH

Comments:

From "1983" hosted by FluffyRuffle