July 24, 1973, the International Forest of Friendship (IFoF) began with the ground-breaking partnership of the City of Atchison, Kansas, the Kansas Forest Service, and the International Ninety-Nines to create a living memorial to not only Amelia Earhart, but also, aviation and aerospace leaders.
Helen “Fay” Gillis Wells (October 15, 1908 – December 2, 2002) is one of those remarkable American pioneer aviators, first woman Caterpillar Club member, and award-winning broadcaster.
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In August 1929, Fay began flying at the Curtiss Flying School. In early September, right after she soloed, Fay joined the Caterpillar Club when her airplane fell apart in the sky. Founded in 1922, the Caterpillar Club membership requirements are: “A person must have jumped from a disabled aircraft with a parachute to save their life.” Undaunted on October 5, Fay earned pilot license #9497.
Also, in 1929, Fay was one of the original signers of the letter of invitation to women aviators to join with their Sky Sisters to form a women’s pilots’ organization. Today, we know it as the Ninety-Nines.
Fay Gillis Wells, founding member of the 99s, served as their first secretary. In later years, she was the driving force behind the founding of the International Forest of Friendship. (International Women Air & Space Museum.)
Immediately, the Curtiss-Wright Corporation hired Fay to demonstrate their aircraft nationwide. In 1930, Fay received her commercial pilot’s license. During 1930-34, Fay joined her family because her father was working in the Soviet Union. With her aviation and journalism contacts, Fay wrote for the New York Herald Tribune. TheNew York Times, and the Associated Press. As she grew her Russian aviation network, Fay became the first American woman to pilot a Soviet civil aircraft, and the first foreigner to own a glider there. In 1933, she used her Russian connections to help Wiley Post’s successful solo round-the-world flight. In 1935, when Post invited Fay to co-pilot in another round-the-world flight, she declined because she eloped with Linton Wells, a pioneer newsman. (That ill-fated flight killed both Wiley Post and the beloved humorist, Will Rogers.)
Fay Gillis helped Wiley Post in his successful, solo around-the-world flight in the Winnie Mae when she lived and worked in the Soviet Union. Fay is photographed in 1976 at the National Air and Space Museum. (National Air and Space Museum)
The Wells became a dynamic foreign correspondent team. In 1935, they covered the Italo-Ethiopian War for the New York Herald. Fay and Linton pioneered reporting radio broadcasting. Upon their return to the United States, they both continued newspaper and radio reporting. In 1964, Fay was hired by Storer Broadcasting Company, the largest privately-owned U.S. radio and television broadcaster. Fay became the first woman accredited White House correspondent. Fay covered Presidents Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter. In 1972, she was one of only three women reporters selected to cover the historic Nixon trip to China. Fay retired in 1977.
During her many years in journalism, aviation was always in her heart. In 1962, using her extensive government and media contacts, Fay encouraged the U.S. Postal Service issue of the Amelia Earhart Airmail postage stamp.
Fay Gillis Wells promoted the idea of a US Postage Stamp honoring Amelia Earhart. (National Postal Museum)
The Wells were key supporters in the creation of the International Forest of Friendship which Fay co-chaired for many years, Over her lifetime, Fay Gillis Wells received many aviation and broadcasting awards: 1972 Woman the Year by OX5 Aviation Pioneers, 1984 Women’s Aerospace Achievement Award, and 1984 McDonald Distinguished Stateswoman of Aviation Award, 1992 Women in Aviation (WAI) Pioneer Hall of Fame, 1998 Esther Van Wagoner Tufty Award for broadcasting achievement, 2001 National Aeronautic Association Katharine Wright Award, 2002 Amelia Earhart Pioneering Achievement Award, and the American Women in Radio and Television Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2002, Lillian Brinnon and Howard Fried penned a book about this trailblazer, Fay Gillis Wells: In the Air & On the Air. In 2009, the Overseas Press Club of America established the Fay Gills Wells Award to honor Wells, who was a founding member of the organization in 1939.[
The International Forest of Friendship is one of the lasting legacies of trailblazer Fay Gillis Wells. Link to the 2024 International Forest of Friendship magazine. pdf
