Dot Lemon
Dorothy "Dot" Lemon (1907–1986) was a 20th century aviator whose career ranged from barnstorming in the 1920s to becoming the first woman president of the Institute of Navigation in the 1960s.
Dot Lemon | |
|---|---|
 Dorothy "Dot" Lemon | |
| Born | 1907 |
| Died | 1986 |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | aviator |
| Spouse(s) | Richard (Dick) Lemon |
Career in aviation
Dorothy, known as "Dot", was born in 1907 and adopted as Dorothy Martin by a pastor, Albert Martin, and his wife. Her birth certificate states that her biological father was a member of a Chicago family surnamed Whitney. She gained the name she is best known by following her 1937 marriage to fellow pilot Richard (Dick) Lemon.[1]
In the early 1920s, Lemon took up flying in Syracuse, New York, learning from the early aviator and barnstormer Merrill K. Riddick. She flew her first solo flight in a Curtiss Jenny when she was 16. She became a barnstormer herself later in the decade.[1]
Unable to make a living as a pilot, Lemon moved to Cicero, New York, where she took a job in advertising with the American Eagle Agency as New York state sales manager for Hayes Aviation.[1]
Lemon claimed to have been the first person to intentionally fly into the eye of a hurricane, in 1932 in a Stinson Reliant monoplane, though there is no proof of this claim. If true, this would have been more than a decade before the flight by aviator Joseph Duckworth that is commonly accepted as the first premeditated foray into a hurricane's eye.[2]
In the late 1930s, Lemon and her husband lived in Florida and together ran a flight school at Belvedere Field, an airfield later renamed Palm Beach International Airport.[3] During World War II, Belvedere Field was used as a military training site.[1]
In 1940, she became the chair of the newly formed Florida chapter of the Ninety-Nines, a leading international organization for women pilots.[4]
After World War II, Lemon took up air racing, participating in the 1946 Halle Trophy Race[5] and the 1948 Kendall Trophy Race, finishing third in the latter.[6]
By the early 1960s, she had moved to southern California, where in 1961, she became the first woman to serve as president of the scientific Institute of Navigation (ION).[7] During this period, she wrote an allegorical book, One One: A Story of the Life, Death, and the Resurrection of an Airplane (1963).[1]
Gold mining
In the 1960s, Lemon became interested in Venezuelan gold mines. In 1964, the Venezuelan government granted her title to a group of 25-year gold-property concessions collectively known as “Las Cristinas”.[8][9] They are reputed to be potentially very valuable and have been the subject of worldwide ownership litigation since Lemon’s concessions expired with her death.[9] Lemon died in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1986.[1]
Relationship with Leon Brink
While working with Hayes Aviation, Lemon became involved with World War I veteran Leon Perl Brink (1895–1944). She had four boys with Brink named William, Sherwood, Clinton, and Wellington.[1]
Legacy
Lemon's life story was the subject of an exhibition at the International Women's Air & Space Museum in 2012.[1]
References
- Kinsman, Richard. "The Dot Lemon Saga". Vintage Airplane, November 2011, pp. 4–5.
- Fuller, John F. Thor's Legions: Weather Support to the U.S. Air Force and Army, 1937-1987. American Meteorological Society, 1990, p. 242.
- Planck, Charles E. Women with Wings. Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 179.
- Ninety-Nine News Letter. March 1940, p. 1.
- Society of Air Racing Historians. "1946 National Air Races". The History of Air Racing.
- Society of Air Racing Historians. "1948 National Air Races". The History of Air Racing.
- Flight, vol. 50, 1961, p. 57.
- News stories on the Las Cristinas claims generally refer to her as "Dot Culver Lemon" or "Dot Culver-Lemon"; the reasons for this remain unclear, but she may have remarried.
- Werbowski, Michael. "The Saga That Is Las Cristinas". Worldpress.org, Feb. 19, 2006.