Aviation legend "Mama Bird" Evelyn Bryan Johnson of Morristown died Thursday afternoon at age 102. She is said to have logged more flight hours, trained more pilots and given more Federal Aviation Administration exams than any other pilot on the planet. When inducted into the Hall of Fame, Johnson had been flying for 55 years and had spent the equivalent of seven years in flight. Johnson began taking flying lessons during World War II while living in Jefferson City, Tennessee.
She was born Nov. 4, 1909 in Corbin, Ky., the daughter of Edward William and Myme Estelle (Fox) Stone. A member of First Baptist Church of Morristown, she was an airport terminal executive, designated pilot examiner and manager of Moore Murrell Airport in Morristown since 1953.
Her funeral service was held on Tuesday and a graveside interment service was held on Wednesday at Jefferson Memorial Gardens in Jefferson City.
-Mama Bird Johnson at NAHOF in 2007, image special to Alabama Aviator-
In 1929, Evelyn Bryan Johnson graduated from Tennessee Wesleyan College. In 1944, she rode a train from Morristown to Knoxville, took a bus, then walked one mile and finally reached Island Home Airport in a rowboat. That day she took her first flying lesson and she soloed a month later. At age 94, Evelyn Johnson remained an active flight instructor and FAA pilot examiner in Morristown, Tennessee. With more than 57,000 of flying time in her logbook, Evelyn was the highest flight time aviatrix in the world. Among hundreds of honors, she is also enshrined in the Flight Instructors Hall of Fame during its inaugural ceremony in 1997. She was enshrined in the Tennessee Aviation Hall of Fame September14, 2002 and inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame on July 21, 2007.
-She has administered over 9,000 checkrides.
-Johnson was the FAA Flight Instructor of the Year in 1979.
-Johnson has been inducted into the Women in Aviation Pioneers Hall of Fame, the National Flight Instructors Hall of Fame and the Kentucky and Tennessee Aviation Hall of Fame.
-Johnson holds the record for the most flight hours of any woman, 57,635.4 hours.
For Johnson it was "love at first flight," since the day she saw her first biplane circling in the sky above Gatlinburg. "And it still is love at first flight," she said. Fly high Mama Bird- no one on earth will ever touch your record or dedication to aviation. -B Meyer