History Pub – American Fly Girl: The Story of WWII Pilot Hazel Ah Ying Lee Presented by Susan Tate Ankeny

McMenamins Olympic Club Theater
112 N Tower Ave, Centralia, WA 98531
Tuesday January 21st, 2025 7:00PM 
All ages welcome / Doors at 6:00PM

Hazel Ah Ying Lee was the first Asian American woman to earn a pilot’s license, fly for the US military and fly fighter aircraft. She spent her early years in Portland’s Chinatown and was admitted to the Chinese Flying Club in Portland, a training ground that sent 32 young Asian American pilots to China to fight the invading Japanese forces in 1932 and 1933. During World War II, Hazel was a Women Airforce Service Pilot (WASP) and broke through gender and race barriers to accomplish her dream of flying. She was a larger-than-life personality unafraid to question the limiting beliefs of society.  

Historian Susan Tate Ankeny is a member of the Oregon 8th Air Force Historical Society and the Association des Sauveteurs d’Aviateurs Alliés (the Association of Rescued Allied Airmen) which finds and memorializes World War II crash sites in France. Susan left a career in teaching to research and write about her father and his escape from Nazi-occupied France resulting in the 2020 publication of The Girl and the Bombardier: A True Story of Resistance and Rescue in Nazi-Occupied France. The great-granddaughter of Oregon pioneers she lives in Vancouver, Washington.