Description
Geraldine “Jerri” Sloan Truhill kneels to polish the wing of a Beech Bonanza plane while her co-pilot, Martha Ann Reading, lays underneath the plane. The women are preparing the Beechcraft Bonanza H-35 for the 12th All Women's Transcontinental Air Race (AWTAR) in 1958. The women were both well-known aviatrixes. Truhill was one of the thirteen women who passed all of the astronaut tests given at the Lovelace Clinic in 1961, making her a member of the Mercury 13. Reading was the first female Lieutenant Colonel in the Civil Air Patrol. Both women were members of the Texas Ninety-Nines.