April 29, 1909
Aviation pioneer Pearl Laska Chamberlain was born to John W. and Lanie C. Bragg on Chestnut Mountain in Summers County, West Virginia. One of eight children, Chamberlain started out life as Lelia Pearl Bragg.
At the age of 17, Chamberlain became a school teacher; she remained in this profession to one extent or another until retiring in 1972. She also developed a strong interest in airborne transportation. In 1933, Chamberlain learned how to fly by piloting a Kinner Fleet biplane. Several years later, she put her teaching skills to effective use as an instructor for the Civilian Flight Training Program.
After the United States’ entry into World War II, Chamberlain joined the civilian pilots organization known as the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). The attached photo of her was taken during her time as a WASP trainee. After being honorably discharged, she worked as a cryptologist at the Pentagon.
Another chapter of Chamberlain’s life began in 1944, when she moved to what was then the U.S. territory of Alaska. She worked far and wide within this future state as both a flight instructor and bush pilot. One of her record-setting achievements in that part of the world involved becoming the first woman to travel in the skies above the Alaska Highway while flying solo in single-engine plane in 1946. (The specific aircraft that she piloted for this milestone flight was a 1939 Piper J-4 Cub Coupe.) That same year, Chamberlain married merchant and fur dealer Lewis Lincoln Laska. Sadly, however, he died only two years later.
Chamberlain earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Alaska in 1955. She went on to receive a master’s degree from Miami University of Ohio in 1959. Chamberlain’s thesis focused on civilian aviation in Alaska. Later in life, she married fellow teacher Ed Chamberlain. They lived in California until his death in 1987. She then returned to Alaska, residing in Fairbanks until she moved to Nashville in 2007 to live with her son Lewis Lincoln Laska Jr. Chamberlain died in Nashville on November 22, 2012, at the age of 103.
Chamberlain, who held a pilot’s certificate until she was 97, continued to fly planes well into her golden years. She was a lifetime member of the Ninety-Nines, the organization of women pilots that was founded in 1929 by Amelia Earhart and other female aviation trailblazers. Chamberlain received this organization’s Award of Achievement in 2007. In addition, she was given the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award the previous year. Her obituary stated, “Gracious and even-tempered, Pearl allowed no nonsense when it came to flying, but asserted that every hour spent in the air gave a person an extra day on earth.”
Photo Credit: Public Domain
For more information on Pearl Laska Chamberlain, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_Laska_Chamberlain and https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=179189
Transportation History 
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