VIVACIOUS GIRL

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 December 1935, Page 10

VIVACIOUS GIRL

MANAGER OF AIR TRAFFIC “What’s in a name?” asks Miss Twyla O’Hara with a shrug of her dainty shoulders. “Could anything sound more feminine, even nambypamby, than the name Twyla? But it does me a lot of good. It arouses curiosity and people want to know how on earth a woman whose name is Twyla can be handling a man-sized job. So then I have to prove to them that I can.” Miss O’Hara of the queer first name has, also, a very unusual job to explain. She is district air traffic manager of Central Air Lines —the line which carries mail and passengers from Pittsburg through Akron and Cleveland to Detroit, Michigan, states a writer in the “Christian Science Monitor.” That means that she has to sell the id,ea of air travel to anyone and everyone with whom she comes in contact. It also means that she travels by air a great deal herself, going from city to city to give little talks about Central Air Lines to interested groups, showing pictures, and describing the comforts and conveniences of her aeroplanes to people who have never been aloft before. Recently when the line acquired some new Stinsons, Miss O’Hara went over the route from city to city acting as hostess to the interested citizens of each place who had been invited to go aloft to “try out” the new aeroplanes.

BLUE EYES OF A FLYER ‘This aeroplane business is still in its infancy,” said the vivacious girl who'walks with'the swift easy grace of an athlete and who has the keen blue eyes of a flyer. “Or maybe I should say I’m the baby in.it, for while I’Ve been flying since 1918, and have crossed ' the' country many times by air, I have never taken the controls of an aeroplane, and have been traffic manager less than a year. But as far as I’m concerned it’s the most fascinating business in the world.” Miss O’Hara studied at Columbia University and entered the real estate business after leaving college. Then she was technician in a hospital for a number of years. On slender brown fingers she checked off the rest of her jobs. “I was an impresario running concerts for the Community Concert Association of America. Then 1 was an interior decorator, and then 1 taught school.” Mr. J. C. Condon, president of Central Air Lines, does not feel that he is being radical in employing a girl in the traffic manager’s job, although it has been' customary for air lines to employ only men for that position. “I find that girls are dependable and trustworthy and quick as far as learning the ropes go,” he said. “You know, I am the one who employes the only girl mail pilot —Miss Helen Richey. And she has certainly worked out beautifully as a pilot.”