Free Before Amelia by Eileen F. Lebow

everywhere to promote the service. Marie, often referred to as “the flying Florence Nightingale,” spent forty years advancing the service, to which she was completely dedicated. In later years she was known affectionately as the “Godmother” of
Aviation Sanitaire,
which was a happy joining of her aviation skills and the medical skills she eventually developed.
    With the outbreak of the First World War, Marie pursued a variety of careers. She spent several weeks in disguise as a foot soldier at the front, then wrote of her experience; she reported on the war on the Italian front; on skis, she helped carry food to troops in the Dolomites and assisted with evacuations; she trained as a nurse and assisted in surgery; and she served with the Red Cross. Reportedly, she took part in an aerial bombardment of a German base, which won her the Croix de Guerre after the war. The death of her father in 1916 slowed her briefly, but there was little time to consider her new life entirely alone in the midst of war. Felix had given her total encouragement and love; he was probably the only person who really knew her.
    The years after the war were never short of causes. Marie attended conferences regularly—one estimate is an astronomical thirty-five hundred during her life—to confer nationally and internationally on her favorite topic,
Aviation Sanitaire.
In addition, she lectured on aviation matters and assisted with medical evacuations in Morroco and elsewhere in North Africa by
Aviation Sanitaire
during the French colonial wars, an experience that enabled her to learn the native languages. More than one commanding officer in the years between 1919 and 1925 owed his life to the swiftness with which he reached an operating table because of
Aviation Sanitaire.
    Among her other accomplishments, Marie, using her knowledge of winter skiing, invented metal skis for desert use. In February 1923 she drove across the Sahara, beating the speed record of Mrs. André Citroën, and entered In–Salah, a Berber stronghold in the Algerian mountains, reportedly the first European woman to do so, driving a Fiat 3549 with rubber tires. She spent three long periods in North Africa, 1922–27, 1932–35, and 1950–53. She worked on two documentary movies,
Saved by the Dove,
for which she did the narration, and
The Wings That Save,
filmed in 1934, in which she acted, and visited the United States twice before World War II to promote her
Aviation Sanitaire
and speak about aviation. On one visit, she met Amelia Earhart; both were recognized famous aviators. Marie was instrumental in founding a home for wounded airmen in 1939–40, and added to her credits the invention of a device used in surgical sutures; she received the first license issued as
secouriste de l’air
(“air rescuer”).
    Awards were many, a total of thirty–four medals and decorations. In 1935 she was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor with its red ribbon; in 1937 she was named Chevalier of l’Ordre de la Santé. On her third visit to the United States in 1948–49, at an international meeting in Los Angeles sponsored by the Women’s Aeronautical Association, she received first prize for her autobiographical works
Fiancée of Danger,
a summary of her many careers, and “My Balloon Trip across the North Sea.” Her name was inscribed on a marble wall in Riverside, California, honoring pioneer aviators. The American press liked
Fiancée of Danger
and saluted Marie accordingly. No copies of that work survived, but her long life is well documented.
    In 1954 at the Sorbonne she received la Victoire de Samothrace, a grand prize, presented by Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe, an oil magnate and early aviation supporter, in recognition of Marie’s pioneering work for
Aviation Sanitaire
and the
services de secours
(“rescue services”). In 1957 she received a Gold Medal in recognition of her work for Physical