Aviatrix Laura Ingalls was "Wilder" than Laura Ingalls Wilder!

LAURA HOUGHTALING INGALLS was an early pioneer and advocate of female aviation during the "Golden Age" of the 1930's.  As fearless as she was headstrong, Laura Ingalls, often confused with popular author Laura Ingalls Wilder of "Little House on the Prairie" fame, accomplished more aeronautic feats and established and / or broke more aviation records than most men of her day.
   Born in 1901 and passing from this life in 1967, her obituary from the Daily Review of Burbank, California, January 17, 1967 reads:
"LAURA INGALLS, FAMED EARLY AVIATRIX DIES"
{Miss Laura Ingalls, who became the first flyer to complete a solo flight around the South American continent in 1934, died recently [January 10, 1967] in Burbank. She was 66.
Miss Ingalls had lived in California 30 years and at 1027 Country Club Drive 12 years.
The daughter of a socially prominent New York family, Miss Ingalls' great love was flying.
She placed second in the 1936 National Air Races in a special contest for women. She completed a transcontinental trip, flying alone in her Lockheed Orion, in 15 hours and 39 minutes.
Miss Ingalls was also enthralled by aerial acrobatics. The first woman to earn a transport pilot's license, she performed 980 continuous loops in her DH Gypsy Moth and 714 consecutive barrel rolls over St. Louis.
In 1935 Miss Ingalls set out to set a record for the first non-stop coast-to-coast flight from east to west. She made the flight in 18 hours and 19 minutes. She then broke Amelia Earhart's nonstop record by 5 1/2 hours.
Miss Ingalls leaves a brother in Paris, France and a sister-in-law in New York. Private funeral services and burial were held.}
   This obituary, though telling, does not come close in describing the many achievements of her career. From her solo South American flight alone, Laura established the following records:
The longest solo flight ever made by a woman - 17,000 miles
The first solo flight by a woman from North to South America
The first solo flight around South America by man or woman
The first complete flight by a land plane around South America by a man or woman.
The first land plane to negotiate the perilous route up the East coast of South America
The first American woman to fly the Andes solo.(Miss Ingalls was awarded the Harmon Trophy for Women in 1934 for this outstanding achievement.)
   Born into a prominent family, she was one of the heirs of the Houghtaling Tea fortune, but her dedication and her love of flying took her out of the realm of her family business.
   Destined to become even more popular than aviation icon Amelia Earhart, Laura's leap into obscurity began during the early days before the U.S. entry into World War II when she flew over the nation's capitol building throwing out "America First" pamphlets. The America First movement was believed to be a Nazi-sponsored outfit advocating U.S. isolationism and promoting Americans to stay out of the War in Europe. Laura Ingalls, being of German Descent, was accused of being a Nazi spy and was indicted and sentenced to Federal Prison for violating the "Foreign Registration Act", where she served time for having failed to register as a German Agent in the United States. These charges she denied up until the time of her death and most suspect that she was used as a "Patsy" to further the gain of certain political careers in Washington.
   She was released from Alderson West Virginia Woman's Reformatory in October 1943 after serving 18 months of her sentence. Her conviction effectively snuffed out one of aviation's most promising participants and launched her into obscurity.

Shown here from my collection is an airmail postal cover signed by Laura Ingalls with her famous logo, which she called  "My Cresent and Cross", a combination of her initials L.I. This cover was carried with Laura Ingalls during her record-breaking transcontinental flight of 1935, as shown by the cancels. Her logo was prominently displayed on the side of her aircraft as shown in her picture above.