Lucille received her official government pilot's license on November 16, 1929. Her license number was 9997. The famous women's flying group, the Ninety-Nines was formed in the same month she earned her license. It is thought that the Ninety-Nines might have been called the One Hundreds had Lucille deigned to join. Unfortunately, she was a bit miffed by all the attention given to socialite Gladys O' Donnell's solo at the airfield next door when her's went largely unnoticed. Apparently she was not interested in joining a club to which Gladys belonged. She was also scheduled to fly in the Women's Air Derby of 1930 as Ebrite Aviation's entry, but O'Donnell had the support of the City of Long Beach, which meant a better plane; Lucille may have felt the deck was stacked against her and dropped out. A bit shy, she was never much of a joiner anyway. It's too bad we can't point to her as a charter member of the famous 99s, but she is one of the 117 licensed women pilots who were invited. I wonder what became of the other 17 pilots who declined. She was just 23 at the time these photos were taken. We lost her to cancer when she was in her fifties.

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