Amelia Earhart statue unveiled at Atchison museum

ATCHISON, Kan. (WIBW) - The Amelia Earhart Foundation was joined by Kansas Governor Laura Kelly on Saturday for a ceremony to unveil a bronze statue of Amelia Earhart.

The statue, which is located at the Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum, is the sister statue of the one that was installed in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol in July.

“How better to cement our state’s legacy as the Air Capitol of the World than with a statue at the museum that celebrates a woman who showed all of us what it means to “reach for the stars,” Governor Laura Kelly said.

Earhart, a native of Atchison, Kansas, received her pilot license in 1923 and went on to become one of the most celebrated figures in the world during her life and a champion for the advancement of women everywhere. She cemented her legacy as a pioneer of aviation when she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

Earhart was declared lost at sea when she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937.

“Amelia Earhart’s bravery and relentless fighting for equality for women and girls still gives my generation strength and inspiration,” Gabrielle Henry, Amelia Earhart’s great-great niece, said. “It is an honor to have her blood run in my veins, and even more so to hold her values in my heart.”

Governor Kelly also recognized the legacy of other pioneering women throughout Kansas history, including Susanna Salter, the first woman to be elected mayor in the United States in 1887; Georgia Neese Gray, who, during the Truman Administration, became the first woman to serve as United States Treasurer; and Lucinda Todd, a civil rights activist and one of the petitioners in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision.

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