For some people, the sky’s the limit. For others, it’s a familiarity they can’t shake, even into their 80s.
That was the reality for today’s subject, Mildred Beamish, who kept flying planes until she couldn’t anymore.
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She was born Feb. 11, 1910, to Barr Colonists Robert and May Holtby. The family grew up in the Kempton District.
Her parents were both very much into music and she ended up following a similar path, starting to play the piano at the age of five. By the time she was 10 years old, she was skilled enough to accompany other area musicians.
I found two different stories of how she met her husband, Somers Beamish.
The first story is the one I like more because it feels like a classic love story. Mildred was skiing and she broke a ski. That’s when a young man with a team of horses gave her a lift. The man in question was none other than her eventual husband, Somers.
The other story is that, apparently, they met when she was part of a band. Knowing how musically inclined Mildred is, I could believe that story as well.
Either way, Somers and Mildred met and got married in 1928. She was just 17 years old when the pair tied the knot. They went on to have four kids, Eric, Gwen, Grete and Norma. She taught the kids to appreciate nature and also taught them piano.
It would be in 1947 when things for the couple really changed. At this point, they were firmly on the ground and never took to the skies. In 1947, Somers got his pilot’s license and Mildred became his navigator.
Just a mere decade would go by before Mildred also had her pilot’s licence. She eventually got her commercial pilot’s licence, which she said was one of her greatest feelings of accomplishment.
As soon as she took to the skies, she never looked back. She often flew to Calgary and Winnipeg, terrains she was familiar with.
In 1966, she was crowned queen of the Saskatchewan Flying Club.
Mildred flew a lot, she flew 1,600 miles to the annual convention in Hot Springs, Ark. She logged more than 15,000 flying miles travelling to various clubs in the district.
I’m not sure I even drive that many miles in a year. She did it just to visit the different clubs.
For her longest flight, she travelled to Anchorage, Alaska. Mildred even took multiple trips to Kansas to the birthplace of Amelia Earhart.
Despite her love of the skies and her logged miles, she never considered herself an adventurous person.
One interesting story she’s told involves a strange flight and some racket coming from the engine. The Beamishs had owned a plane that had crashed. When Mildred flew over the area where that plane had gone down, her engine started making noise. She executed an emergency landing in the field, thinking it was best to land than continue trying to travel. Well, her quick thinking likely saved her life. When the engine was inspected, she learned if she hadn’t landed, she likely would have crashed.
I don’t know if there was any connection to that particular place for her, but it was quite the chance encounter for her plane to nearly break down in the same place one she previously owned had crashed.
Mildred kept flying for as long as she could, well into her 80s. She died at the age of 93 in 2003.
Being deemed queen of the skies is quite the title. Her dedication to flying and promoting it will always stand out to me.
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