girls with earhart poster

LaPorte fourth graders Bethany Schuster, Sarah Gillen, Elise Behnke and Madelyn Dowty hold a poster they designed about Amelia Earhart. (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story on famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart was written by WNLP reporter Elise Behnke, a LaPorte Community Schools fourth grader.

   Amelia Earhart was always adventurous. She wanted to be the first woman to fly the Atlantic. She went to a publisher named G.P. Putnam. He said he wouldn’t let her fly the plane unless she had experience.

   She went on a flight with two men to England. When they were flying, the door on the back of the plane flew open. Amelia nearly killed herself because half of her body was out the window. Thankfully one of the men saved her.

Elise Behnke

Writer Elise Behnke

   Finally, they landed on the Atlantic Coast of England. When people saw a red plane coming, they hurried from what they were doing to go greet the arrival.

   Amelia loved the feeling of flying so much that when she went back, she just had to fly. Amelia took George Putnam (G.P.) to a dance and they fell in love. After that she just had to fly the Atlantic. So Amelia did. G.P was so worried he actually tried to get Amelia out of it. Do you think her husband could stop her? Oh no, he didn’t.

   Before she left, Amelia and G.P. got married. Then she left for her trip across the Atlantic. Ten hours into it there was a big storm with a lot of thunder and lightning. Her husband stayed up all night until he heard she got there safe and sound.

   Eleanor Roosevelt asked Amelia and G.P. to eat dinner at the White House. That is when Eleanor had her first flight. Well, she didn’t actually fly the plane, but she rode in it. They flew all the way to Baltimore. When they got back, Amelia left for her second flight and said this:

   “After midnight the moon set and I was all alone with the stars. I have often said the lure of flying is the lure of beauty, and I need no other flight to convince me that the reason flyers fly, whether they know it or not, is the esthetic appeal of flying.”

   Then her plane disappeared and she was presumed dead. We have theories on what happened:

   — Her gas ran out

   — She fell asleep

   — She crashed

   — She ran into another flyer

   I hope you enjoyed my story, but this was just an introduction to Amelia Earhart.

FOR MORE INFORMATION on Amelia Earhart, visit http://ameliaearhart.com.