Florence Gunderson Klingensmith (3 September 1904 – 4 September 1933) was an American aviator of the Golden Age of Air Racing. She was also a founding member of the Ninety-Nines, a women's pilot group. She was one of the first women to participate in air races with men. She died in an accident during the Frank Phillips Trophy Race at the 1933 International Air Races in Chicago, Illinois. Life Florence Edith Gunderson was born September 3, 1904 to Gustave and Florence (Parker) Gunderson on their small farm in Oakport Township, Minnesota. She was baptized in the Oak Mound Congregational Church and attended the Oak Mound Consolidated School in Kragnes Township with her sister Myrtle and brothers George and Roy. Her father "Gust" worked at Oak Mound School as a janitor and school bus driver and was the clerk of Oak Mound Church. The family moved to Moorhead, Minnesota around 1918, where the daredevil Florence took up riding motorcycles - very fast! She met Charles Klingensmith and they married on 25 June 1927, but within a year and a half the two had split. In August, 1928 Charles Lindbergh visited Fargo, North Dakota, where she was living at the time, inspiring Florence to take flying lessons. In 1928, she attended Hanson Auto and Electrical School in Fargo. That summer, she agreed to be a skydiver in return for flight lessons from Edwin Mead Canfield. Her first jump left her unconscious, but this did not deter her. Over that winter she went door to door to persuade local business men to fund the purchase of a plane. In return, Florence would promote Fargo and carry advertisements at fairs, flying meets, and air races. Her persistence paid off. As Fargo laundry owner William T. Lee said, "If you're willing to risk your neck, I'll risk my money." He and other local business owners put up $3,000 to purchase a Monocoupe. She picked it up and flew it back to Fargo's Hector Field, where she was working as a mechanics' apprentice, and christened it "Miss Fargo." In June 1929 she became the first licensed woman pilot in North Dakota. That summer she barnstormed county fairs, worked as operations manager at Hector, and flew in her first race, where she took fourth place. On 19 April 1930, she set the woman's record for inside loops with 143 loops. Unfortunately, no National Aeronautics Association members were