A flight with Cornelia Clark Fort

By Charlotte Fontaine

NASHVILLE, TN — Cornelia Fort Airpark is a fairly popular spot for picnics, walks, biking, and relaxing on a pretty spring or summer day. Located towards East Nashville, the sprawling former runways work nicely as exercise paths creating a friendly environment where one is bound to circle around the same few faces on their rounds. With it being Women’s History Month, today we’ll look deeper into the park’s namesake, pilot Cornelia Fort.

Cornelia Clark Fort was born February 5, 1919 to a distinguished family in Nashville, Tennessee with a deep familial history in Robertson County. She was the daughter of Rufus Elijah Fort, a surgeon who was also a founder of National Life and Accident Insurance Company, and Louise Clark. Cornelia received a top knotch education any female Nashvillian of the era would be envious of, receiving a high school certificate from the now-defunct women’s college Ward–Belmont College (whose campus is now Belmont University). She also received a two-year diploma from Sarah Lawrence College in New York.

One of five siblings, Fort’s three brothers were ironically told not to fly by their father because it was too dangerous. Fort was determined to achieve her goal of being a pilot however, despite it being highly unusual for a woman to pursue a flying career at the time. She trained and received a pilot’s license none other than Nashville. She was the second woman in the state of Tennesee to receive a commercial license, and the first to get an instructor’s license.

Fort was eager to start her piloting career, and the tragedy that became her life has become defined in history by two important aviation landmarks in time. She became a flight instructor in Hawaii in the early 1940s. While leading a training session, Fort was the first U.S. pilot to encounter the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Still mid-air and with her student, she was forced to make an emergency landing after the near miss.

In 1942, Cornelia became the second member of WASP (the Women Airforce Service Pilots). She was also chosen to join the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS), which has now turned into the Women Airforce Service Pilots. She was known for her mid-air tricks, and appetite for flying.

On March 21, 1943, Fort was ferrying a military plane between Long Beach California, and Love Field in Texas. Supposedly showing off mid-air tricks that day, her plane wing was struck by a fellow pilot, and she lost control, ultimately crashing near Merkel, Texas.

Though she died at the young age of 24, Fort’s legacy lives on in the creation of Cornelia Fort Airpark. Built in 1945 near where she was raised by her family in rememberence, the land was a functioning airport between 1944 and 2011. It was actually the place where singer Patsy Cline was supposed to have landed on the fateful day where her plane, like Fort’s, tragically crashed, killing the beloved crooner. Today its 141 acres serves as a beautiful place for outdoor recreation, and is a beautiful homage to a woman Nashville should be honored to have as part of its unique story.