I love public radio. There is no better fodder for the insatiably curious and the occasional mind stretch. Recently, I again listened to The Story's Dick Gordon interview with Betty Klenck Brown in 2007, who, as a young girl, believes she heard Amelia Earhart's last transmissions over her father's shortwave radio. In short, on a July afternoon in 1937, 15 year old Betty was listening to the radio and writing down song lyrics in a composition book when she came across a distraught Earhart broadcasting repeated distress calls. Familiar with Earhart, she knew she was listening to something important, and began writing down all she heard, which seemingly made little sense. Random numbers, disjointed thoughts, with a man's voice interspersed. When Betty's father arrived home, he listened, saw his daughter's notes, and immediately went to the Coast Guard to tell them what they'd heard. Officials told him everything was under control, but thanks anyway.
Betty's notebook did not surface again until 50 years later, when it became an integral part of several theories on Amelia Earhart's fate. She wrote things in her notebook that she could not possibly have known if the messages were not from Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan.
Gordon's interview with the shaky-voiced Brown, now 85 years old, lasts roughly 30 minutes, and I found myself more curious about Betty Brown than Earhart. Suspend your cynicism for a moment, and let's assume this is a true story (I believe it is). Betty was not just a bystander, but a part of the Earhart story, a part of history, no matter how quietly it has played itself out. She was haunted by the radio transmissions and the military's dismissal of her experience. She attempted to reach out to authorities on several occasions as she grew into adulthood, but no one was interested. Left with the feeling that she might have had information that could have potentially saved two lives, Brown channeled her experience into a life path that helped her somehow connect with the lost aviator: she became a pilot herself. She said "she wanted to do something for her (Amelia)." Brown, possessing some of the same confidence and bravado as Earhart, met her husband, also a pilot, dusting him as he walked into an airplane hangar as she taxied in from a flight. They were married three weeks later.
The interview doesn't tell us much about Betty's life past her early flying experiences and the heart-warming story of how she met her future husband. But this is a story deserving to be told. Betty was witness to history, perhaps some scandal, and her entire life, and many of those she touched, were forever changed by it. I am left with a keener eye for all characters in a story now, not just the "stars." Which one of us is going to tell this story?
Betty's notebook did not surface again until 50 years later, when it became an integral part of several theories on Amelia Earhart's fate. She wrote things in her notebook that she could not possibly have known if the messages were not from Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan.
Gordon's interview with the shaky-voiced Brown, now 85 years old, lasts roughly 30 minutes, and I found myself more curious about Betty Brown than Earhart. Suspend your cynicism for a moment, and let's assume this is a true story (I believe it is). Betty was not just a bystander, but a part of the Earhart story, a part of history, no matter how quietly it has played itself out. She was haunted by the radio transmissions and the military's dismissal of her experience. She attempted to reach out to authorities on several occasions as she grew into adulthood, but no one was interested. Left with the feeling that she might have had information that could have potentially saved two lives, Brown channeled her experience into a life path that helped her somehow connect with the lost aviator: she became a pilot herself. She said "she wanted to do something for her (Amelia)." Brown, possessing some of the same confidence and bravado as Earhart, met her husband, also a pilot, dusting him as he walked into an airplane hangar as she taxied in from a flight. They were married three weeks later.
The interview doesn't tell us much about Betty's life past her early flying experiences and the heart-warming story of how she met her future husband. But this is a story deserving to be told. Betty was witness to history, perhaps some scandal, and her entire life, and many of those she touched, were forever changed by it. I am left with a keener eye for all characters in a story now, not just the "stars." Which one of us is going to tell this story?
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