We wish to honor our past members who have moved on in life who have left an aviation legacy.
These women were great contributors to aviation and to the Alaska chapter.
DECEMA KIMBALL ANDRESEN (1907 - 2002)
Decema, a charter member of the Alaska Chapter of the 99’s, was born in Seward, Alaska. She came to the tent city that was Anchorage when she was nine years old. Her parents had purchased property in the first townsite auction in the summer of 1915.
Kimball’s Dry Goods, built on that property, was the oldest continuously operated business in Anchorage until the time of Decema’s death in 2002 at age 95. She had inherited the business upon the death of her mother in 1958. She used to commute by plane from the valley to Anchorage.
Decema saw Anchorge grow from a tent city to a modern city of over 250,000 people. An avid outdoors woman, Decema combined her two loves, flying and hunting.
Ruth Martin Jefford (1914 - 2007)
The Iowa native began flying when she was only 17 years old. She made her first solo flight in 1937 in Lincoln, NE, then married her flight instructor Jim Hurst. The couple moved to Anchorage, Alaska, in 1941 so Hurst could work for the Civil Aeronautics Authority, the predecessor of the Federal Aviation Administration. During World War II, Jefford volunteered with the Red Cross Motor Corps, helping to cover all the lights in Anchorage to avoid bombing raids by the enemy.
Jefford spent the next 60 years in the air. She was the first woman licensed flight instructor in Anchorage in 1944 teaching students at Merrill Field. and the first female commercial air taxi pilot in the state. Jefford was a charter member of the Alaska chapter of the Ninety-Nines (International Organization of Women Pilots), a charter pilot for Valley Air Transport and started the International Air Taxi Service at Anchorage International Airport
For more than two decades, she delivered mail and supplies each week to the tiny community of Skwentna, Alaska for Skwenta Air Mail, sub-contracted schedule for Wien Airlines from 1961 to 1985. Jefford made the 140-mile trip in her Cessna 206, and took on charter and personal flights in between each visit. She and Hurst divorced in the early 1960s. Ruth loved boating (power and sail) and skippered a 24 ft. power boat from Seattle via Inside Passage to Haines, AK 1971. Ruth remarried a decade later, this time to Jack Jefford, the chief pilot for the FAA in Alaska. Together they opened Valley Air Transport. Jack died in 1979.
With over 10,000 hours of flying time, Jefford made her last solo flight in 1996. Ten years later, she received the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award, an honor created by the FAA to honor pilots who have flown safely for at least 50 years.
Jefford's other passion was music. A violinist since the age of 9, she attended The Chicago Conservatory of Music and studied with teachers in New York and Paris. She co-founded the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra in 1946, and served as its concertmaster for nearly 30 years. In her spare time, Jefford enjoyed sailing her boat, the Arjay, and riding motorcycles. Ruth became a member of the
Alaska Aviaiton Heritage Museum Hall of Fame in March of 2009.
Ellen Paneok (1959 - 2008)
Alaskan Aviation Pioneer, noted artist and author, skrimshander, public speaker, community activist/volunteer, and friend.
The first Native Alaskan woman bush pilot, and one of only 37 pilots featured in the “Women and Flight” exhibition at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, Ellen went on to fly over 15,000 hours. Featured in numerous books on women and aviation, including Bush Pilots of Alaska and Women Pilots of Alaska, she was also referenced in a number of other publications for her unique experience and knowledge of high arctic flying. She was honored to be one of the few pilots authorized to fly the vintage aircraft owned by the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum.
She spent five years working for the FAA as an Operations Inspector, and then for the Alaska Aviation Safety Foundation as the Statewide Aviation Safety Coordinator. During the years she did not hold a medical herself she spent countless hours inspiring the youth of Anchorage and village communities to look to the sky and pursue their own dreams.
Ellen created ivory scrimshaw that hailed from her strong Inupiaq tribal traditions as well as her interest in the changing world of today. She started scrimshaw at age 17. Her grandfather, John Evak Sr., was influential in her learning more about the art. She has exhibited her work at numerous Alaska Federation of Natives conventions and arts and crafts shows. Her work is represented at art and antique galleries in Anchorage and Haines, Alaska, and in Minnesota and Maine. In addition, Ellen’s scrimshaw is in numerous private collections. Ellen took the time to pass on her knowledge by demonstrating her scrimshaw and giving inspirational talks to students. Ellen utilized her talent for art to supplement her flying lessons in the mid 70s in order to gain her licenses and experience for flying commercially in Alaska’s “Bush.”
Helen Stoddard, Alaska Chapter Charter Member
A 99 from the Texas Chapter had a dream in 1952 and that was to organize an Alaska Chapter of 99s. Learning she would need 8 members to start a chapter, Helen invited interested women to meet with her in Stoddard’s Aero Service building at Merrill Field in Anchorage. She saw the culmination of this dream on January 19, 1954 when the Alaska Chapter of Ninety-Nines received its charter. For her efforts in forming the Alaska Chapter, Helen received the Gold Pan Award and is the only member to date to receive this honor in the chapter.
A pilot with 4000 plus hours logged, Helen has ferried 17 planes over the Alaska Highway. She developed a wing tent for sleeping beneath the wing of an aircraft – an item that came in handy during her many long trips. During World War II, while her husband, Wes, taught cadets to fly, Helen acted as dispatcher. All members of her immediate family are pilots with her son and daughter soloing at ages 9 and 10 – this was pre WW2. A movie was made about the children’s flying and they are quite possibly the youngest pilots to solo a plane.
LOIS Marie KNAPP (Wise), Alaska Chapter Charter Member
Lois started flying in June of 1943, became a licensed pilot a year later and was delivering planes for a Piper Aircraft Co. by September of 1944, and all because she became tired of bookkeeping. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Lois has logged over 1000 hours and holds ASES and ASEL ratings.
Her most exciting flight was ferrying J-3s to Panama in July 1946, and she’d like to make this same trip again. The following year she ferried a plane to Alaska, liked what she saw and stayed, working at Merrill Field for a year, later joining the U.S. Weather Bureau. Often called “shorty” because of her diminutive 4 ft. 9 ½ inch height, Lois says she prefers to fly Piper PA-11s because “they fit.”
A retired secretary bookkeeper, Lois now sells real estate in her spare time. In addition to flying, she is interested in politics, sewing and the Wasilla Community Club. She has held many offices in the Alaska Chapter, and remained active from the moment the chapter was chartered in 1954 until her passing to new horizons.
Laurine Yvonne Nielsen Alaska Chapter Charter Member
Helen D. Snyder Alaska Chapter Charter Member
Betty Tipps Loomis Alaska Chapter Charter Member
