Family Background Of Amelia Earhart

Family background of amelia earhart

 

Amelia Mary Earhart is an American aviator and author, who disappeared on July 2, 1937 on the Pacific Ocean due to insufficient plane gas that resulted to a crash, on her route to Howland Island from Lae, Papua New Guinea.

Amelia Mary Earhart was born to Amelia Otis and Samuel Stanton Earhart, a lawyer on July 24, 1897 on Atchison, Kansas on the home of her maternal grandfather, Alfred Gideon Otis. Amelia was the second child of the couple, next to her sister, Grace Muriel Earhart and was named after two grandmothers, Amelia Josephine Harres and Mary Wells Patton.

Alfred first disapproved the marriage and was not satisfied with Samuels progress as a lawyer.

From an early age, Amelia became the ringleader and her sister on the other hand, became the obedient and dutiful daughter. She was nicknamed "Meeley", and her sister, "Pidge". Raising the two girls into proper adulthood became uncomfortable and unconventional for Amelia, since she believed that there are no such things as "nice little girls". Meanwhile, their grandmother did not approved the "bloomers" worn by the sisters, although the parents granted them the freedom to do so.

While the familys finances seemingly improved with the acquisition of a new house and even the hiring of two servants, it soon became apparent that Edwin was an alcoholic. Five years later in 1914, he was forced to retire and although he attempted to rehabilitate himself through treatment, he was never reinstated at the Rock Island Railroad. At about this time, Earharts grandmother Amelia Otis died suddenly, leaving a substantial estate that placed her daughters share in a trust, fearing that Edwins drinking would drain the funds. The Otis house was auctioned along with all of its contents; Earhart was heartbroken and later described it as the end of her childhood.