6 days Ago By Chloe Farnsworth
WORTHINGTON — Nancy Earhart Burt, Amelia Earhart’s second cousin, three times removed, visited Worthington Saturday for the Nobles County Historical Society annual meeting. Burt walked in dressed as Earhart and presented in character. “I just wanted to tell you how happy I am to be back in Worthington,” she said.
“Things have changed a lot since I was last here.” ADVERTISEMENT Burt was referring to the summers Earhart had stayed in Worthington from 1907 to 1911 with the J. P.
Mann family. She spent five whole summers on the shores of Lake Okabena where she would swim, fish and learn how to milk cows and do farm work. Burt’s presentation went over the life story of Amelia Earhart, including her younger sister Muriel and how she saw her first airplane at the age of 13 at the Iowa State Fair.
At 25 years old, Earhart was still single and bought herself a Kinner Airster. She named it “The Canary” after painting it bright yellow. An interesting fact Burt shared involved Earhart flying for long hours.
Apparently, she would use smelling salts to stay awake. Burt offered other random tidbits about Earhart, such as how she went on a deep sea dive once, wrote columns for Cosmopolitan magazine, and put together a luggage line. Earhart also had a clothing line where they used aviator materials such as ball bearings, oil cups and bolts for buttons and buckles.
Burt also shared how Earhart turned down a proposal five times before accepting and marrying book publisher George Putnam in 1931. There was a marriage contract Earhart wrote up for Putnam. In it, she asked that both do not interfere with each other’s work.
She also asked him to promise to let her go if they find no happiness together after a year. Earhart kept her last name and insisted on an equal partnership with Putnam. The first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1932 was ready for a bigger adventure just five years later.
Earhart’s plan was to fly around the world at the equator with navigator Fred Noonan. They had 28 official stops leaving from California. ADVERTISEMENT Earhart was only 39 years old when the two disappeared over the Pacific Ocean on July 2, 1937, shortly before their final planned stop.
Burt closed her presentation with a quote from Earhart: “Some of us have great runways already built for us. If you have one, take off. But if you don’t have one, realize it is your responsibility to grab a shovel and build one for yourself and for those who will follow after you.
” “I always knew I was related to Amelia Earhart,” Burt said. “I was always so proud of it.” Burt has done presentations as Earhart for about a year and a half now, having completed 24 presentations so far.
She said she sometimes hears from people in the audience who have met or have connections with Earhart, so she’ll add them to a list on a slide to present at the next event. Jeanne Goettsch is the newest addition to that list from the Nobles County audience. She shared that she met Earhart when she was 11 years old.
“I was pretty young and I was at Camp Fire girls camp in Big Basin State Park in California,” she said. “One day, she (Earhart) came and spoke to us. She was such a delight and was a pretty lady.
I always wanted to fly after that. I never learned to be a pilot, but I enjoy flying.”.
