A new children’s book tells the tale of a young South Dakota woman who flew dozens of mercy missions during the great blizzards of 1949.
A new children’s book tells the tale of a young South Dakota woman who flew dozens of mercy missions during the great blizzards of 1949.
L ogistically speaking, getting married in a small airplane while in flight would be rather difficult, but Georgia Jipp pulled it off. This daring South Dakota native was instrumental in saving lives during the state’s terrible 1949 blizzards, but until now her story was almost unknown. Thanks to Laura Beth Dean, author of the new children’s book Georgia Jipp: Blizzard Pilot, this exemplary woman is finally receiving some well-deserved recognition.
Jipp had a passion for flying, having spent her childhood taking rides in her father’s plane and then her teenage years earning her pilot’s license. A rash of brutal blizzards, reminiscent of the ones chronicled by Laura Ingalls Wilder in The Long Winter, gave Jipp a new outlet for her passion as she flew 150 mercy missions during the winter of 1949.
Dean’s book, complemented well by Jeanne Bowman’s illustrations, captures the strong spirit of Jipp while also driving home the difficulty of her missions. At 5-foot-3, Jipp had to pad her plane seat with cushions so she could see over the nose and handle the controls (a predicament I completely understand). Jipp owned two planes, a Piper Cub and an Aeronca Champ, and she installed skis on the Champ to help her land on the snow. The book tells how, when the plane became stuck in powdery snow during various landings, Jipp would have to push, pull, and tug to get it free. I recently completed my tailwheel training in a Champ, and while I can move it on my own, it’s certainly not easy. It’s even harder to get these planes started, especially when it’s cold. And if Jipp’s Champ was like the one I’ve flow, it wouldn’t have had an automatic starter. You have to hand-prop the plane from the outside — something I have attempted, sometimes successfully but usually not, and which takes a lot of arm strength.
Bowman’s illustrations are detailed and carefully considered, and I particularly loved her attention to the drawings of Jipp’s planes. Even the end-note pages are graced with thoughtful elements relating to Jipp and her piloting skills, such as illustrations of a logbook, kneeboard, and sectional map. The South Dakota State Historical Society, which published the book, should be proud of its work in preserving and promoting the story of this plucky woman.
As Dean repeats often in her book, Jipp “was little, but she was brave.” And she had to be, flying mission after mission to bring fuel, food, and much more to stranded farmers who were burning furniture to stay alive. The situation became so dire that the U.S. military was called in to help, and Jipp flew alongside C-47s dropping supplies.
Jipp flew these missions when she was only 22 years old, and it seems the rest of her life was fairly uneventful in comparison. She went back to school for meteorology and worked for the U.S. Weather Bureau for about 33 years. Dean clearly spent painstaking hours researching Jipp, and she provides readers who want to learn more with a timeline of the aviatrix’s life, charming photos of the pilot conducting her meteorologist’s work, and additional reading resources.
Dean does an excellent job of laying out Georgia Jipp’s life in an engaging way without overwhelming readers with facts or storylines (a rule for good picture books) and without overdramatizing her achievements. What Jipp did was indeed very courageous, but it seems as if it was all in a day’s work for her. People needed help, and she simply used her passion, resources, and talents to bring it to them. A true example of an excellent American.