Alverna Williams
From Women Aviators
Alverna Williams (1918? - ) was an American aviator, and the first double-amputee to earn a pilot's license.
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Childhood
Alverna Williams was born in 1919. When she was a year old, she was run over by a streetcar. Both of her legs were amputated above the knee. Though she used prostheses when she was very young, she found them too uncomfortable. She learned to walk on her hands instead.
A lot of Williams' can-do attitude comes from her childhood. When she was just a girl and asked her mother for a glass of water, her mother joked that she should get it for herself. Williams quickly climbed up in a chair and then onto the counter to get a glass from the cabinet and then filled it with water.
"It was liberating," she says.
She dropped out of school to join a circus.
"I never had any problems with my arms," she says. "I learned to walk with them, and it just came natural." In fact, she sometimes wears shoes on her hands.
"When my mother was trying to teach me to wear prosthetic legs, I found the shoes quite attractive," she explains. "My mother said, 'If you practice, you can take the shoes off the legs and play with them.' And that's how I started wearing shoes on my hands."
"When I was growing up, our neighbor, a dance teacher, took an interest in me," Williams explains, "because her son did. He wasn't my age, but he thought that I was somethin' else. So, naturally, everything that she could teach me to please her son was an investment for her. Of course, I always had a lot of strength in my arms, and I learned acrobatics that way."
Williams was only about 15 when she went to work for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and her mother went everywhere with her because of her age. She only stayed with the circus for about a year, however. "It wasn't something that I liked, and I was real temperamental about it. It was a hard life."
Pilot
Then, at age 25, she learned to fly.
"There was a new airplane on the market called the Ercoupe that only had two controls instead of three, which meant that you really didn't need legs to fly it," she explains. "By that time, I guess I was a little popular for some of the things I did in life, and I was approached about flying it."
Though she was able to fly with no problem and fulfilled the requirements for a license, the FAA refused to give her one, she says. "Aviation was pretty much open to everybody, and then I came along, and they said, ‘No. She can't do that.' So I talked to my lawyer about it, and he said, 'Yes we can.'"
She had three strikes against her in the FAA's eyes: She was a woman, young and disabled.
"They tried to cause me a lot of trouble, and I returned it. I had to take them to court and I won the case. But I never would have gotten anywhere if I hadn't done it that way." By doing so, she paved the way for others with amputations and other disabilities. "I thought that I would be quite an asset to aviation, and I guess I did add something, especially through suing the government to get my license."
In 1944, after a long battle with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Alverna Williams became the first pilot with a physical disability to be licensed to fly an airplane by the agency. In fact, as a bilateral lower-extremity amputee who stands just 2 feet tall without prostheses, she could also be the smallest.
In her profile at the inMotion website, the now 85-year-old Williams says she has done everything. "You name it," she says. "I've done it. Nothing has ever scared me. I can't ever remember being afraid of anything or anybody."
Career
Throughout the years, she's been an acrobat in the circus, part of a trapeze act, a tap dancer, and part of a motorcycle act.
At age 50, Williams decided to improve her education by enrolling in college and earning an associate's degree in psychology. At 85, she swam regularly, and could still tap dance with shoes on her hands.
Powder Puff Derby
Alverna participated in the Powder Puff Derby held in 1977. (At the time of that flight, she made her home in Grand Prairie, Texas.)
References
- Amputee Coalition Profile, Alverna Williams
Bibliography
- Powder Puff Derby: The Record (1947-1977). Edited by Kay Brick. AWTAR, Inc. 1985
