The Famous Faces of Clan Cochrane

Jacqueline Cochran was an American pilot, a pioneer of women in aviation. Born in 1906 in Mucsogee, Florida, she grew up in a poor family and received very little formal education. She was required to work from a very early age, finding employment in a cotton mill at just 8 years old.

Cochran also experienced a lot of turmoil in her young life, getting married at 13 or 14 and soon having a son. Tragically, her child died just 5 years later, and her marriage fell apart. Cochran, however, was determined to overcome her misfortune and provide a good life for herself. She trained as a beautician, finding work in Alabama and Florida, before eventually relocating to chase success in New York City.

It didn’t take long for her to find it. Her talent and charm landed her a job at a well-known, prestigious salon in Saks Fifth Avenue.

Around the same time, on a fateful day out with a friend, Cochran experienced her first flight in an aircraft, setting into motion what was to be a stunning and record-breaking career!

She began attending flying lessons at an airfield on Long Island and learned to fly in just 3 weeks. Within 2 years, she had earned her commercial pilot’s license. From then on, she went from strength to strength. She worked alongside the equally iconic Amelia Earhart to open the Bendix Transcontinental Air Race to women, becoming the first woman to enter in 1935, coming third in 1937, and winning first prize in 1938.

In the early 1940s, she trained groups of female pilots for the Armed Forces in Britain and the US, starting a life-long alliance with the military. She was even appointed the Director of the Women Airforce Service Pilots in July 1943.

In 1952, Cochran achieved perhaps her most famous accolade when she became the first woman to break the sound barrier, flying a Sabre 3 at an average speed of 652.337 mph. She was also the first woman to fly a bomber across the North Atlantic, the first and only woman to serve as president of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, and to this day holds the title of most distance and speed records reached by any pilot, male or female.

While breaking all these records and flying over oceans, Cochran also somehow found the time to manage a highly successful cosmetics business, aptly named “Wings to Beauty.” She would fly her own plane all around the United States promoting her products, and even recruited Marilyn Monroe to endorse her lipsticks!

Cochran died on the 9^th August 1980 at her home in California, with an almost unbelievable number of triumphs under her belt. Her local airport was renamed the Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport in her honour, and her success continues to inspire many today.

It seems that Jacqueline came from a long line of pioneering Cochrane women, as years before her birth, Margaret Cochran Corbin was also breaking barriers in her own way.

Margaret was born in 1751 to immigrant parents and spent her early years living on the edge of the American frontier in Pennsylvania. Her parents decided that this turbulent landscape was too risky for a young child, so she was sent to live with her uncle, further in-state. She stayed there until she married John Corbin, a Virginian farmer, in 1772. The pair lived a simple and happy life on a small farm but three years after their wedding, John was required to enlist in the army to fight in the great Revolutionary War.

Margaret didn’t want to leave her husband, so she followed him into the army, taking on the role of a ‘camp follower.’ Many women performed this duty during the war, experiencing the same punishing conditions and displaying as much steely bravery as the male soldiers we are accustomed to seeing. Margaret worked as a nurse, helped to carry ammunition, and risked her life bringing food and water to the battlefield.

Then, at the Battle of Fort Washington in November of 1776, her role expanded unexpectedly. John’s regiment had been sent to protect the fort from an advancing British attack, and he was stationed at the top of a hill, in charge of a small firing cannon. Tragically, he was hit by enemy fire before he even had a chance to load his own weapon. On seeing this, Margaret allowed herself no time for shock or grief, and instead rushed to fill in her husband’s position, taking over the cannon herself. She is reported to have worked with great skill and speed but, unfortunately, the British were more heavily armed and better prepared, and Margaret was hit 3 times, in the arm, chest, and jaw.

The British Army ultimately won at Fort Washington, capturing the surviving members of the Patriot forces, including Margaret. She was later released and sent to a hospital in Philadelphia, where she received treatment for her injuries.

The American government recognised Margaret’s bravery and the awful situation she had been left in by awarding her a military pension in 1779, making her the first woman to ever receive such help. After this, she was officially included on military rolls, and in 1781 was sent to West Point, New York, to join the Corps of Invalids, a regiment made up of seriously injured soldiers who could no longer serve in the field.

She stayed in West Point until her death in 1800, and there are now a number of monuments honouring her in the local area.

Margaret was clearly imbued with astonishing bravery and valour, and her story truly brings light to the often forgotten and unappreciated role that women played in the Revolutionary War.

You might be more familiar with our final famous face for today under their pseudonym: Nellie Bly.

Nellie was actually born Elizabeth Jane Cochrane on the 5^th May 1864 in Armstrong County, Philadelphia.

As a young girl, Elizabeth was extremely sharp and motivated; she enrolled herself in Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1879, hoping to study writing and enhance her already keen journalistic skills. Unfortunately, she was forced to drop out after only one term due to the expense.

Luckily, she didn’t let this dull her spirit.

In 1885, Elizabeth came across a column in the Pittsburgh Dispatch entitled ‘What Girls Are Good For’ which theorised that women’s only role in society should be to have children and maintain a household. This enraged the smart and driven Elizabeth, so she wrote an impassioned response under the pen name ‘Lonely Orphan Girl,’ arguing that women were in fact capable of much more and should be able to work any number of jobs. The editor, George Madden, was impressed, and sought her out, asking her to write another piece for the newspaper. Elizabeth jumped at the opportunity and eventually gained a full-time writing job for the publication. She took on the pen name ‘Nellie Bly’ and focused her work on women’s rights, advocating for divorce reforms and publishing investigative pieces about the lives of women factory workers.

Before long, ‘Nellie’ had become notorious. A number of factory owners wrote to the Pittsburgh Dispatch, complaining that her writing was harming their business. In response, the paper reassigned her to the culture section, giving her assignments on fashion, theatre, and art.

This was an unacceptable affront to Nellie, so in 1887 she left the job, heading off to New York City. After months of struggle and rejection, she managed to get a meeting with Joseph Pulitzer’s newspaper, the New York World, and was hired for a shocking task. She agreed to feign insanity in order to investigate reports of horrendous conditions in the ‘Women’s Lunatic Asylum’ on Roosevelt Island.

Once committed to the asylum, Nellie was appalled by what she discovered. The newspaper organised her release after 10 days and she published a report detailing the cruelty suffered by patients. This had an astounding impact; it forced the asylum to implement reforms, and evoked sympathy for a women who were most often scorned, abused, or just ignored.

This project bought Nellie nation-wide fame and launched her career. She went on to achieve innumerable successes, including a world record breaking challenge where she made the fictional ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ a reality, actually travelling the globe in just 72 days.

In her later life, she wrote a series of novels about a woman adventurer, (surely somewhat autobiographical!) and took over her husband’s company, becoming head of the Iron Clad Manufacturing Co, adding business owner to her long list of accolades.

Sadly, Nellie died of pneumonia in 1922, aged just 57, but her legacy only continued to grow posthumously.

In 1998, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, and in 2002, she was one of 4 journalists commemorated with a US postage stamp.

The New York Press Club also awards an annual ‘Nellie Bly Journalism Award’ to honour outstanding journalistic work by burgeoning professional writers.

Image Sources:

Jacqueline Cochran by Luciaroblego - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0