When she was 12, in 1930, she read a newspaper article about Ellen Church becoming the first female steward aboard a United Airlines passenger plane. She knew then what she wanted to be, when she would graduate from high school. An accompanying photograph showed Miss Church with seven other stewardesses, all smartly dressed in green woolen twill suits, capes, and barrette they wore when on the ground; they wore white uniforms during a flight.
As she read on, Barbara learned more about her life-to-be as an airline stewardess. Attendants could be no taller than 5 feet 2 inches, and that worried Barbara because she was growing by the day. They also could be no older than 25 and weigh no more than 115 pounds, and she knew how much she liked to eat.
She thought she would like the duties of an "air hostess." They checked that seats were fixed firmly to the floor of the airplane, made sure the passengers did not throw rubbish out of the window, and looked after their general comfort and needs. Most importantly, they had to caution the air travelers not to confuse the door of the washroom with the exit.
Passengers, numbering a dozen to eighteen on a flight, were served lunches consisting of sandwiches, green salad with vinaigrette dressing, ice cream, coffee, and cake.
After a flight, the hostesses were expected to clean the aircraft's interior and even help the mechanics push the plane into the hangar. The pay was $125 a month.
It was not until reading the end of the article that Barbara worried she might not be able to become an air hostess for two reasons. First, Ellen Church and all the other young women were certified nurses. That meant she would first have to study to be a nurse. Second, and even more daunting, stewardesses could not marry. Even at her young age, Barbara thought she might have trouble with that rule.
Maybe, she thought, she would just forget about becoming an air hostess and, instead, learn to fly a plane herself.
Five years after Lindbergh's historic flight, when Barbara became a high school freshman, she read about the woman who would become one of her two heroines in real life. Amelia Earhart had become the first woman to fly a plane solo across the Atlantic and was called "the First Lady of the Air." Or even "Lady Lindy," since Charles Lindbergh had become the leading spokesman for aviation and Earhart the leading spokeswoman.
Meanwhile, as Barbara grew into her teens and wasn't looking into the sky, she went back to her books and movies.
If there was any movie about flying, like Wings and Hell's Angels, she would sit through it two or three times on Saturday, then come back the next day to see it several more times.