On Saturday, Oct. 4, Friends of Shelby is showing a free outdoor screening of “Crosswinds: The Courageous Life of Cornelia Fort.” This documentary explores the life of the trailblazing woman Cornelia Fort Airpark is named after. Here’s more about her life.
🌹 A Southern Belle With Other Intentions
Dr. Rufus Fort was a prominent member of the Nashville community. A surgeon at Nashville General and a breeder of Jersey cattle, he was the owner of Fortland, a massive property in East Nashville at what is now the intersection of Eastland and Riverside Drives. His two daughters — Cornelia, born in 1919, and her sister Louise — were brought up to be proper Southern debutantes, whose comings and goings were tracked in society pages.
Cornelia bristled against the future her family set out for her, falling in love with aviation, attending Sarah Lawrence College, and taking up flying lessons. She did not tell her family about her secret passion until after her father’s death in 1940.
🛩️ A Trailblazing Pilot
Within a year, Cornelia became the first female flight instructor in Nashville. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Civilian Pilots Training Program, she moved to Ft. Collins, CO, and was hired in 1941 to teach flying in Hawaii to the military men stationed there. On December 7th, 1941, she and a student were in the air off John Rodgers airfield when they barely dodged a collision with a hostile aircraft; looking out over the horizon, she realized Pearl Harbor was under attack from the Japanese Navy Air Service.
🇺🇸 An American Hero
Thanks to the United States’ entry into World War II, Cornelia was soon invited to join a brand new squadron: The Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron. Based in Delaware, the WAFS tested and delivered aircraft throughout the country, as well as training male cadets. It took until 1977 for the WAFS women to be designated as military personnel and entitled to full military benefits. Sadly, Cornelia did not live to see the day: She was killed in a routine ferrying mission over Dallas Love Field in 1943.
The runways of Cornelia Fort Airpark at Sunset. (ElizabethDayMusic / Wikimedia Commons)
🚴 How To Celebrate Her Memory
Cornelia kept comprehensive diaries, which were sadly destroyed in a house fire; the Nashville Public Library has her remaining papers available to view. I like to think that every time anyone — young women especially — sets out to bike, skate, or run on the runways of Cornelia Fort Airpark, they’re honoring the hero who lent her name to that place. It’s also a great area to see wildlife: Deer, herons, wild turkeys, and the occasional coyote are frequent visitors. Friends of Shelby hosts regular Cornelia Airpark Concerts in the hangars every summer, and I once ran an entire half marathon around its 1.25-mile loop. It’s the perfect Nashville spot to seize the day … and I think Cornelia would have loved that.
