Dorothy Layne McIntyre, African American aviator

Dorothy Layne McIntyre (image courtesy of Dorothy Layne McIntyre Family Papers, WRHS)

By Rita Knight-Gray, Host Committee member

In 1940, Dorothy Layne McIntyre became the first African American woman to receive a private pilot’s license under the Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA). She attended the flying program at West Virginia State College. While working as a secretary in the Baltimore Urban League, she also taught aircraft mechanics at the War Production Training School. She moved to Cleveland and married F. Benjamin McIntyre in 1942 and worked as a bookkeeper, social worker, and a Cleveland Public School teacher until she retired in 1979. McIntyre still lives in the greater Cleveland area.

Sources:

• Dorothy Layne McIntyre Family Papers, Western Reserve Historical Society
• Icabod Flewellen Collection, East Cleveland Public Library
• “Civic Makers: Dorothy Layne McIntyre,” by The History Makers