"Dear Anna, (...) To answer your questions…
Jackie had more than one unique character trait that helped her break so many records. She was fearless and incredibly determined to succeed at whatever task she approached. She would never take "No, you can’t do that" for an answer! She was also physically strong and had a special kind courage even in the face of disaster. Her social skills were superb…especially when it involved her dealings with powerful men. Women, on the other hand, would find her self-centered and sometimes obnoxious. But to her close female friends, she was a hero and would do anything for them. She was always making fried chicken to take to a friend in need!
Personally, I’m not sure that Jackie Cochran was easy to love. But I came away from this book project with awe about what this poor girl from Florida was able to accomplish…and mostly on her own, at least in the beginning of her life. I also think Jackie Cochran was an incredible hero and character in American history and I feel sad to think that not enough people, especially women and young girls like yourself, know about her. I stumbled upon her when I was a young mother and I decided to write a book which would allow me to work from home and not commute into New York City where I had been a magazine editor for Ladies Home Journal, Good Housekeeping and McCall’s magazines. At the time, I read every book on the bestseller list and one of them was about Chuck Yeager, Jackie’s good friend. In his book, Yeager described this amazing Jackie Cochran and that’s when I set off to sell my idea and pursue her story. At the time of her death, Jackie held more speed, altitude and distance records than any other pilot, male or female, in aviation history, Her career spanned 40 years from the Golden Age of the 1930s as a racing pilot, through the turbulent years of World War II as founder and head of the Women’s Air Force Service Pilot (WASP) program, into the jet age, where she became the first female pilot to fly faster than the speed of sound…as you highlight on your webpage! Why hasn’t history been kinder to her? Maybe because she was a woman? And a woman who might be described in today’s world, as pushy? But if you want to succeed at your dreams, I think that’s what we women have to do…to push ahead and to persist!