LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - NOVEMBER 6, 2022 by Lynne Belluscio This is an article for Betsy Overacker’s “Page Turners” team. I was at the Wolcott Street School recently and ran into Betsy. We had a quick chat and she told me that this year’s Page Turners, would be reading “Amelia and Eleanor Go For a Ride.” The book is based on a true story, when Amelia Earhart visited the First Lady at the White House in 1934. Betsy said to me, “The kids couldn’t believe that both of these famous women had been in LeRoy.” So, I promised Betsy that I’d write about the two famous women in the Pennysaver this week and how it happened that they came to LeRoy. Amelia Earhart was the female pilot who became known as “Lady Lindy”* after she became the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean in an airplane on June 17, 1928. That airplane was the “Friendship”, and it was owned by Donald Woodward of LeRoy. Donald’s father was Orator Woodward, who owned Jell-O. Donald built an airport onAsbury Road. That is where he had a fleet of airplanes, including the Friendship. In September 1928, thousands of people came to the airport for the grand opening. There was a huge airshow and the newspaper reported that over 60,000 people came to LeRoy. The story of the big event was in last week’s Pennysaver. However, Amelia Earhart did not come to LeRoy at that time but she did come to LeRoy a couple of months later on January 24, 1929. She was in Rochester and Don Woodward asked her to come to the airport to see the Friendship. He sent someone to drive into Rochester and pick her up and that’s how she came to LeRoy. She signed autographs. In fact, there are photographs of her in LeRoy. One photograph shows her stepping out of the Friendship, and in the plane you can see a chair. That chair is at the LeRoy Historical Society as well as an autographed photograph. It was a cold winter day, and everyone is dressed in their heavy coats. You will notice a little girl in a white coat and hat. She is three-year old Anne Ferguson. Amelia picked her up to have her photograph taken. Anne Ferguson is still alive, and lives in Bozeman, Montana. She says that she remembers that she was told to smile when the photographer took her picture, but she was scared and didn’t smile. After the photographs at the airport, Donald Woodward’s wife, Adelaide, invited everyone to her house at 129 East Main Street for some hot tea and food. Then Amelia went back to Rochester. Several years later, in 1934, Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was in Buffalo helping to campaign for Caroline O’Day who was running for election to Congress. AdelaideWoodward was Vice Chairman of the Genesee County Democratic Party, and she invited Mrs. Roosevelt and Caroline O’Day to come to LeRoy to her house. A motorcade was escorted by the New York State Police and the Secret Service. They arrived at the Woodward home on East Main Street which was decorated with red, white, and blue bunting. A group of ladies were gathered inside and it was reported that a thousand people were in the front yard. The First Lady was greeted by the High School Band and the American Legion Drum Corps. On the lawn was a “Democratic Donkey” with a “Rally Day” blanket. Eleanor was presented with a bouquet of roses. Caroline O’Day was a member of a group of four women, including Mrs. Roosevelt, who wrote and edited a monthly p u b l i c a t i o n e n c o u r a g i n g women to vote and she was involved with the League of Women’s Voters. She was elected to Congress and served four terms and advocated for child labor p r o t e c t i o n , e m p l o y m e n t opportunities for the disabled, immigration rights and antilynching legislation. In 1939, O’Day was at the side of the famous African American singer, Marian Anderson when she sang at the Lincoln Memorial after being banned by the Daughters of the American Revolution to sing in Constitution Hall. Eleanor and Caroline O’Day would remain friends until O’Day’s death in 1943. The story of Amelia and Eleanor in the book that the Page Turners are reading, takes place on April 20, 1933, a year before Mrs. Roosevelt was in LeRoy. Amelia and her husband, G.P. Putnam were invited to the White House for dinner and to spend the night. Amelia was in Washington to give a speech the next day. Amelia arranged to take Eleanor for a flight over Washington D.C. She did not fly the plane. It was flown by two pilots for the airplane company. But you will have to read the book to learn all about this adventure. *Lindy is a reference to Charles Lindburgh, who was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in May 1927. Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt Visit LeRoy
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