Suzanne Leone Higgins: How to become a teenage aviator in the 1930's

Suzanne Leone Higgins was raised on Long Island by French immigrant parents.? As a very young child she witnessed a bright red biplane land in a field next to her home in Mamaroneck Long Island.? From that moment, Suzanne developed a lifelong fascination with flight.[1]? Her family moved around a lot, but Suzanne managed to keep her interest in flight alive.[2] When the family was living in Westchester New York, Suzanne learned that a barnstorming pilot would be giving airplane rides for a small fee at a local fair.[3]? Suzanne saved up her ice cream money and her first flight that day confirmed to her that she needed to earn her pilots license.[4] After her family moved to New York City in 1933, Suzanne met an official who worked at the East Coast Flying School at Floyd Bennett Field. She was only fourteen but she convinced the man to allow her to “help around” with the planes at the airport machine shop.[5]?

?After school each day on the long subway and bus rides to Floyd Bennett Field Suzanne would finish her homework.[6] On arriving she would put on white overalls and offer to help out in the machine shop.? At first the mechanics gave her janitorial work, she was teased constantly, and fell prey to endless practical jokes by the all-male staff. When she continued to volunteer she was allowed to scape mud off planes and black carbon off engines.[7] Her conscientious attention to detail earned her respect and in time she was allowed to repair engines and the canvas fabric on airplane wings.[8] By sixteen Suzanne was going to school and working a variety of jobs to attend flight training school at Floyd Bennett Field.? Choir singer, French translator, bookkeeper, photographer’s model, telephone switchboard operator, parachute jumper, magazine author, and instrument technician at the Sperry Gyroscope Company were just some of the jobs she took on to earn money for her flight training. [9]

?At age 18 she graduated high school and earned her pilots license at 19.[10] A few years later she was awarded her commercial pilots license allowing her to earn income flying passengers.[11]? Her instructors at Floyd Bennett Field were really impressed with her skill and aviation knowledge.? “That girl, Suzanne G. Leone will blaze new trails in the sky and will write new pages in aviation history,” said her instructors.[12]? When World War Two broke out there was an immediate need for women aviators to fly fighter planes and bombers to US air bases. Suzanne hesitated joining the Women’s Air Service Pilot (WASPS) because she knew that her eyes sight would make it hard for her to land heavy bombers in the dark. The WASPS was a new organization desperate to show doubting male pilots that they could immediately attract skilled female pilots. Suzanne was skilled and was willing to travel to Texas and enter the program to help the WASP effort. As she predicted her eye sight prevented her from remaining in the program long, but she had done her part to convince army air force pilots that women in the WASP program could fly any airplane as well or better than male pilots.[13] By 1943 Suzanne was back at home in New York, returned to her work at the Sperry Gyroscope company as an instrument technician.[14] She threw out all of her photographs and her WASP uniform and went on with life.[15] At work each day she calibrated the gauges and dials her fellow WASP pilots used aboard their planes, an important but perhaps bittersweet job.

?Just after the end of the war in 1946, Suzanne and a friend heard of an airshow in Florida that would pay for fuel in return for flying to the show. Suzanne and her friend rented a small plane and flew from New York to Florida.[16]? After the show, Suzanne visited the Florida Everglades and fell in love.[17]? Hundreds of bird species lived among the Everglade’s river of grass and Suzanne’s extensive knowledge of flight led her to a careful study of birds. The Everglades and the large lake that fed it were in danger of being drained and developed and Suzanne joined with Marjory Stoneman Douglas[18] and Charles M. Brookfield[19] to save her beloved birds and establish Everglades National Park.? Always the multitasker, Suzanne began to create scenes of birds in the Everglades pressed into copper plates.? She also graduated second in her class at the University of Miami with a teaching degree and continued to write magazine articles about birds, aviation and romance.[20] In a few years she met and married a fellow bird lover,[21] raised a family, taught school and worked as a social worker helping needy children.[22]? In time, her husband learned to fly, and Suzanne took on the role of navigator in their small plane. Years later, a group of European pilots stayed at their Florida home.? Deep into a conversation about aviation, they were amazed when their school teacher/housewife hostess joined right in with observations about the intricacies of flight. [23]

?[1] Personal Interview with Suzi Higgins daughter of Suzanne Goutal Leone Higgins, May 17, 2017

?[2] “’Lady Grease Monkey,’ 19, Took flyer from choir loft”? Brooklyn Daily Eagle April 22, 1940 “That practice of saving any little money she got, to spend on flying began way back. Miss Leone recalled today, when she was a young lady of 11…Among the places in which she has resided are Albany, Boston, the Bronx, Fieldston, White Plains, Mamaroneck, Maryland, Long Island City, and finally Brooklyn.”

?[3] “Flatbush Girl Wins License To Pilot Planes for Pleasure” circa 1940 newspaper clipping from Higgins family “Miss Leone’s interest in aviation dates back to 1933, when she attended a fair in Westchester.? For weeks she had been saving her ice cream money to take a trip in an airplane which was an attraction at the fair.? She was so enthused with her air experience that she has been an “aviation bug” ever since.? “’Lady Grease Monkey,’ 19, Took flyer from choir loft”? Brooklyn Daily Eagle April 22, 1940 “That practice of saving any little money she got, to spend on flying began way back. Miss Leone recalled today, when she was a young lady of 11.? It was ‘ice cream money’ that she then saved for her first flight, taken in a barnstorming plane.? That once flight was enough to implant in her the ambition to do more and lots more flying.”

?[4] “’Lady Grease Monkey,’ 19, Took flyer from choir loft”? Brooklyn Daily Eagle April 22, 1940 It was ‘ice cream money’ that she then saved for her first flight, taken in a barnstorming plane.? That once flight was enough to implant in her the ambition to do more and lots more flying.”

?[5] “’Lady Grease Monkey,’ 19, Took flyer from choir loft”? Brooklyn Daily Eagle April 22, 1940 “She was still only 14 when on one occasion, she made it her business to meet an official of the East Coast Flying Service at Floyd Bennett Field. She pleaded with him to let her “help around” or tinker with planes in the machine shop. “

?[6] Personal Interview with Suzi Higgins daughter of Suzanne Goutal Leone Higgins, May 17, 2017

?[7] “Miss Mechanic” by Suzanne Goutal? Leone? American Modeler:?The Best in Model Planes, Radio Control, Model Boats, Volumes 13-15, 1939 “Being permitted to work in an airplane shop of a large Eastern airport without paying a fee for the priviledge seemed to be a rare piece of luck.? At last, here was an opportunity to be in close contact with aviation and to learn the groundwork besides.? It was thus in the fall of 1934 that I began to spend my weekends working as a mechanic’s ‘helper’…”It’s just a waste of effort,” one well-known flier told me. “no one will let you do mechanical work on an airplane.? A shop, especially on this airport, is not place for a girl of your age, so give those coveralls to someone in the hanger, stop showing off and stay home. They’ll soon get tired of kidding you,” he concluded,” and chase you out.” Perhaps it was because their repertoire of jokes was endless that the following month still found me scrubbing ships and cleaning motors…I was used as a dumping ground for old jokes, and a testing block for new ones…Hardly a day passed without bringing me bumps, actually, or to my ego.? Smashing my fingers with tools, dropping fifteen feet from the nacelle of a Sikorsky…However since I did no damage to the equipment, I was permitted to continue.”

[8] “Miss Mechanic” by Suzanne Goutal? Leone? American Modeler:?The Best in Model Planes, Radio Control, Model Boats, Volumes 13-15, 1939 “The work I enjoyed most at this time was connected with recovering.? Most light planes are covered with a fabric that is stretched over the skeleton of the ship.? When its edges have been sewn together, this cloth is treated with a substance, usually containing nitrate, known as dope.? This stiffens the fabric and makes it waterproof…It was fun at first, but after two long hours of applying dope to a wing, the fumes began to make me dizzy and nauseous…someone gingerly took my arm and led me outside…’You’re dope drunk.’ He said with a grin.? Never again would I be favored with anything except cleaning, I thought ruefully. But I was, gradually.”

?[9] “’Lady Grease Monkey,’ 19, Took flyer from choir loft”? Brooklyn Daily Eagle April 22, 1940 “During the process of earning her flying education, she was, at various times, a secretary, bookkeeper, stenographer, magazine salesgirl, telephone switchboard operator, choir singer, photographer’s model and parachute jumper.? The parachute jumping ended two years ago in Maryland when a dragging parachute-landing gave her a broken ankle.? She now works days as a technician at the Sperry Gyroscope Company…”

[9] “Flatbush Girl Wins License To Pilot Planes for Pleasure” circa 1940 newspaper clipping from Higgins family

“Few young ladies have had experiences as diversified and so varied…During her quest for a livelihood she has been a private secretary, choir singer, French translator, model, switchboard operator, jewelry salesgirl and also has written aviation articles for various magazines.”

?[10] “Flatbush Girl Wins License To Pilot Planes for Pleasure” circa 1940 newspaper clipping from Higgins family.? “Miss Suzanne Goutal Leone, 20 of 226 Winthrop St., an aviation enthusiast since early childhood, had received her private pilot’s license from the Civil Aeronautics Authority and is now entitled to take passengers on airplane trips for pleasure purposes only….the certificate was issued last June 27.? Last year Miss Leone, who is employed as an instrument watcher at the Sperry Gyroscope Company received her solo pilot’s certificate.”

?[11] ?Higgins family papers: Commercial Pilot’s License February 1, 1946

?[12] Brooklyn Record 1939 newspaper clipping from the Higgins family. “That girl, Suzanne G. Leone will blaze new trails in the sky and will write new pages in aviation history.”? That is the verdict of such aviators as Archie Baxter, Ernest Marquis, Samson Held, Alfred Dehle and Jack Behrens who have taught hundreds how to handle the controls in airships at Floyd Bennett Field…J. David Finger, president of the East Coast Flying Service, said yesterday that Suzanne is the most conscientious worker he had ever met.”

?[13] Personal Interview with Suzi Higgins daughter of Suzanne Goutal Leone Higgins, May 17, 2017

?[14] Miami Herald on Mar.?24,?2013 obituary “During World War II, Suzanne trained in the United States Air Force as a Women's Air Service Pilot (WASP) and received her honorable discharge in 1943 going on to work for the war effort at the Sperry Gyroscope Company.”? Though not stated, I am presuming that Suzanne Leone returned to the job at Sperry ?Gyroscope that she had prior joining the WASPs,? which was described in newspaper articles as “instrument watcher” and “technician.” Dan Meharg

[15] Personal Interview with Suzi Higgins daughter of Suzanne Goutal Leone Higgins, May 17, 2017

?[16] Personal Interview with Suzi Higgins daughter of Suzanne Goutal Leone Higgins, May 17, 2017

?[17] “Metal Craft is Safer Hobby than Jumping” No date, possibly 1948: Newspaper clipping from Higgins Family “Four years ago when Suzanne came to Miami from New York, she fell in love with the Everglades.? So much so that she wanted to depict some of the beauties she saw there…She is active in the Audubon society…”

?[18] Personal Interview with Suzi Higgins daughter of Suzanne Goutal Leone Higgins, May 17, 2017 Check this quote, during the interview Suzi said her mother worked with a famous woman in the effort to save the everglades but could not recall her name.? Marjory Stoneman Douglas became famous for her book on the Everglades “River of Grass” and for her tireless efforts to save the Everglades from development. ?That said, Suzi needs to verify whether or not she recalls her mother working with Marjory Stoneman Douglas or someone else.

?[19] Charles M. Brookfield wrote a book on the Everglades and Florida Keys.? Brookfield and Suzanne Leone were depicted on the cover of a “Sunday Magazine” Miami Herald September 25, 1949 together bird watching. A newspaper clipping from the Higgins family.

?[20]? “Metal Craft is Safer Hobby than Jumping” No date, possibly 1948: Newspaper clipping from Higgins Family

?[21] Personal Interview with Suzi Higgins daughter of Suzanne Goutal Leone Higgins, May 17, 2017

?[22] Miami Herald on Mar.?24,?2013 obituary ?“Suzanne participated in various nature conservation efforts where she met her husband Richard H.?Higgins. Suzanne attended the University of Miami and received her Bachelor's degree in Education graduating cum laude. Suzanne worked as a teacher in the Dade County School System, and later as a social worker in child protective service. Suzanne's hobbies included copper repousse of everglades nature scenes and writing. Suzanne wrote flying stories that were published in several flight magazines. Suzanne is survived by her sister Madeline Leone of Ft. Lauderdale, FL, her two children, Richard Hamilton?Higgins?Jr. of Miami, FL, and Suzi?Higgins?of Pittsfield, MA, and her grandson, Nicholas?Higgins?of Miami, FL.”

[23] Personal Interview with Suzi Higgins daughter of Suzanne Goutal Leone Higgins, May 17, 2017