Pancho Barnes “Fastest Woman on Earth”

A selection from Sherman Library will inspire this month’s exciting read. In honor of Women’s History Month, we recommend Lauren Kessler’s The Happy Bottom Riding Club: The Life and Times of Pancho Barnes (New York: Random House, 2000).

Florence “Pancho” Barnes (1901-1975) remains one of the greatest 20th century American female characters. She was a California heiress, yet she forged her own path to become one of the first licensed female pilots. She used her aviation talent as a renowned stunt pilot for both silent and sound films. With this success, she formed one of the first unions in Hollywood,