AMELIA EARHART
Elishah Gilliam

Born: July 24 1897
Disappeared: July 2 1937 Declared legally dead: January 5 1939

Amelia Earhart was born July 24 1897 in Atchison, Kansas to her parents Samuel “Edwin” Stanton Earhart and Amelia "Amy" Otis Earhart. She lived in the home of her grandfather Alfred Gideon Otis. He was a former federal judge, president of Atchison savings bank and a leading citizen in Atchison. Amelia also had a younger sister named Grace Muriel Earhart. As kids their mother Amy didn’t believe that girls should have to be so proper. Both Amelia and Grace had the freedom of wearing pants and acting like one of the boys. Amelia liked the fact that she didn’t have to be in such uncomfortable dresses all the time, but she was very much aware that other girls her age didn’t wear pants. Amelia had a love for adventure as a kid her and her sister grace went off into their neighborhood exploring the surroundings. Amelia spent lots of hours climbing trees, hunting rats with a raffle, and belly slamming down hills. At the age of nine Amelia’s dad Edwin Earhart got a job that transferred the family to Des Moines Iowa. The next year at the age of ten Amelia saw her first aircraft at a state fair. Her father tried to convince Amelia and her sister to take flight but one look at the rickety old flivver was enough for Amelia. Amelia and grace lived with their grandparents in Atchison when their parents Amy and Edwin had to move into a smaller house in Des Moines. During this time Amelia and her sister was being homeschooled by her mother and a governess. In 1909 when Amelia and her sister were reunited with their family in Des Moines Amelia and grace were enrolled into public school. Six years later in 1915 Amelia’s dad got a new job as a clerk at Great Northern Railway in St. Paul, Minnesota. There in St. Paul Amelia entered central high school as a junior. When Amelia’s father Edwin lost his job in 1915 the Earhart family had nowhere to live. With the family facing homelessness Amelia’s mother Amelia took Amelia and grace and moved them to Chicago where they lived with friends of the family.

There Amelia was enrolled in Hyde Park High School. Amelia graduated from Hyde Park high school in 1916. Throughout her childhood Amelia continued think about her future career. She kept scrap books of newspaper clippings about successful women in mostly male fields. Like film direction, and production, law, advertising, management, mechanical engineering. Amelia started junior college at Ogontz school in Rydal Pennsylvania but she did not finish her program. When Amelia visited her sister in Toronto during World War 1 Amelia saw all the wounded soldiers and decided to go through training for nurse’s aide in the Red Cross. Around