Tuskegee, Alabama that would later train the famous Tuskegee Airmen. With the Tennessee Bureau of Aeronautics, she established an "experimental" program to train women as instructors. The first class, ten women from various states, trained between September and February 1943, and was meant to establish her strong and, to some, controversial belief that " . . . if women can teach men to walk, they can teach them to fly." These women went on to instruct both men and women pilots both in military and civilian flight training programs, including the Navy V-5 and the USAAF Women Airforce Service Pilots. Unhappy about the increasing regulation of the aviation industry by the United States Federal Government under President Harry S. Truman, Omlie resigned in 1952 and left aviation. Later life After resigning from the Civil Aeronautics Authority, Omlie returned to Memphis and purchased a cattle farm in Como, Mississippi. Omlie's inexperience with farming caused hardship for the business, so she traded the farm around 1957 for a small cafe and hotel in Lambert, Mississippi. The hotel business proved to be just as unsuccessful for Omlie, who returned to Memphis in 1961. Omlie periodically spoke to aviation groups about her concerns over increasing federal regulation of the industry, but the speaking engagements dwindled over time and ceased by 1970. The last five years of Omlie's life were spent in seclusion, living in a flophouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, fighting lung cancer and alcoholism. Omlie died on July 17, 1975, and was buried next to her husband in Forest Hill Cemetery in Memphis. In June 1982, a new air traffic control tower was dedicated and named in honor of Phoebe and Vernon Omlie at the Memphis International Airport. References 1902 births 1975 deaths 20th-century American women American aviation record holders American women aviation record holders Aviation pioneers Aviators from Iowa Barnstormers Deaths from cancer in Indiana Stunt pilots Wing walkers People from Des Moines, Iowa People from Lambert, Mississippi