Jacquline Cochran, United States aviator who held several speed records and
headed the women's Air Force pilots in World War II.
Cochran grew up in poverty in a foster home. At age eight she went to work in a cotton mill in Georgia; she later was trained as a beautician and pursued that career till her death.
She died young, at the peak of her career. She died on August 9, 1980, in Indio, California, United States.