Penny Thompson
| Gladys "Penny" Thompson | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 17, 1917 Sylvania, Georgia |
| Died | September 22, 1975 (aged 57) Miami, Florida |
| Monuments | [Larry and Penny Thompson Memorial Park] ([Miami-Dade County], Florida) |
| Residence | Coconut Grove, Florida |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | American aviator; promotor of women's intercontinental air races-air shows; publisher-editor for Southeast Aviation News; founder of Miami-Dade Mother's of Twins Club and Twins Easter Parade |
| Awards | Bertram Trophy Race 1946 |
Gladys "Penny" Thompson (October 17, 1917 – September 22, 1975) was an American aviator and women's intercontinental air race-air show promoter and aviation publisher-editor during the 1940s and early 1950s. In 1953, she married Miami Herald humor columnist Larry Thompson, and for 20 years until his death, she was featured often in his daily column, "Life With Larry Thompson" and in three books he authored. She founded the Miami-Dade Mother's of Twins Club and the Twins Easter Parade.
Born Gladys Rhodes, Penny Thompson watched planes fly over her family's farm in Sylvania, Georgia, as a young girl. This, along with her admiration for famed aviator Amelia Earhart, inspired her to fly. After getting her private pilot's license in 1936, she moved to Miami, Florida, where the aviation industry was burgeoning. In 1940, she married a pilot, Roy Pennington, and became known as "Penny." They divorced in 1951. She published and edited an aviation newspaper, Southeastern Aviation News from 1945-1950.
During World War II, she joined the Civil Air Patrol as a volunteer and flew over the Gulf of Mexico searching for German submarines that were attacking Allied merchant ships. Her plane was destroyed in a fire on September 15, 1945, along with several hundred U.S. Navy aircraft and civilian planes battened down in giant wooden hangars at the Naval Air Station Richmond south of Miami in preparation for a major hurricane. Today, the Larry and Penny Thompson Memorial Park is located on the same property that originally encompassed the Naval Air Station.
In 1946 she won the Bertram Trophy Race sponsored by the Ninety-Nines, the women's pilot organization started by Earhart, at the Florida Air Pilots Association Meet in Orlando, Florida. That same year Penny was elected vice chairman of the Florida chapter of the Ninety-Nines and chairman in 1947. Later in 1947, she led the drive to name the Miami Municipal Airport the Amelia Earhart Field, to honor the aviator who began her around-the-world flight from that field in 1937, disappearing over the Pacific Ocean.
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