Dorothy Layne McIntyre was born in LeRoy, New York in 1917. She was one of the first African American women to receive a private pilot's license under the Civil Aeronautics Authority. She received her license on June 9, 1940. While majoring in business administration at West Virginia State College, a cadet flying program was introduced during the 1939-1940 school year. Only one female student would be allowed to train with ten male students; from the many applicants Dorothy Layne was chosen. She was trained in ground school instruction, mechanics, theory, meteorology, rules and regulations, navigation, and flight. Her wish was to ferry bombers in the war but she was not accepted by the military. However, during World War II she taught aircraft mechanics at the War Production Training School in Baltimore, Maryland, while simultaneously working as a secretary in the industrial department of the Baltimore Urban League. In 1942 she moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and married F. Benjamin McIntyre; they had two daughters, Dianne McIntyre and Donna McIntyre Whyte.
The Dorothy Layne McIntyre Family Papers, 1939-1988, consist of photocopies of original pilot log books, publications concerning aeronautics, newspaper clippings, and correspondence.
The collection pertains to Dorothy McIntyre's career as an African American woman in the aeronautics industry. Also included in the collection are articles and other information concerning Dianne McIntyre and her dance group, Sounds in Motion; a great deal of which concerns the production of "Take-Off from a Forced Landing" based on the life and struggles of Dorothy Layne McIntyre.
The collection is arranged by document type and then chronologically.
Photographs have been removed to the photograph and print collection.
Processed by Adrianne T. Warner in 1993.
None.
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 4649 Dorothy Layne McIntyre Family Papers, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Dorothy Layne McIntyre, 1993.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.