Almost instantaneously, she agreed to the generous offer, and when both her pilot and herself came back to the United States, they were greeted with a ticker-tape parade in New York and a reception held by President Calvin Coolidge at the White House.
After that even Amelia Earhart’s life completely revolved around aviation. She soon was an icon, a fashion model, and heavily promoted through books, lecture tours, and product endorsements, because of George Putnam. After they became very close and good partners, George Putnam consistently asked for her hand in marriage, and on February 7th of 1931, they were finally wed in Putnam’s mother’s home in Connecticut. Earhart referred to their marriage as a partnership and wrote a letter, telling him, “I want you to understand I shall not hold you to any medieval code of faithfulness to me nor shall I consider myself bound to you similarly.”
Amelia Earhart and her husband had been working on secret plans for a solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, and by early 1932, they had made their final preparations. They announced that on the fifth anniversary of Charles Lindbergh’s flight across the Atlantic, Amelia would attempt the exact same feat. The day of the flight, she took off with a newspaper, proof of that date. She took off from Harbour Grace on May 30, 1932. She returned back safely, landing in a meadow in Londonderry, Northern Ireland because of thick fog and technical problems. She had apparently scared the cows of the pasture she’d landed in. Earhart’s nearly 15 hour flight made her an international hero as she had become the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. She then won many awards and honors, including the Gold Medal from the national Geographic Society, presented by President Hoover. She also won the Distinguished Flying Cross from the U.S. Congress, an award no other woman had received.
Unfortunately, Amelia’s last flight had just arrived. She had put together some of the best pilots and technical advisors, as well as one who had been a part of the Marine and Navy, while the other had been a pilot for Hollywood stunts and films. She had taken off from Oakland, California on March 17, 1937, and was supposed to end her mission when she landed in Miami, Florida after flying over the Pacific Ocean, and then all the way around to the Atlantic ocean and finally land. Amelia’s last communication with them and the world was at 8:43 AM. Earhart was finally declared dead in 1939.
Though she did not succeed in finishing her last flight around the world, she did prove that women could do just the same jobs that men could do. That they were equals.