Amelia Earhart
May 24, 2005
Granddad Sayers taught many famous people
to play golf or he made custom golf clubs for them.
When I was in my teens and worked at the family business every Saturday, he
made it a point to have me work on the golf clubs of some rather famous
people.
I worked on President Dwight D.
Eisenhower's clubs, comedian Jackie Gleason's clubs and Reverend Billy
Graham's clubs. I'm sure I worked on a number of movie actors but I can't
remember at the moment.
One of the more famous people that granddad
was associated with was Amelia Earhart. Of course, she was lost in the
Pacific Ocean on her trip around the world before I was born but granddad
taught her how to play golf and made custom clubs for her.
After getting out of parachute drop zone
ownership, I often worked as a 'gypsy pilot' flying jumpers in my Cessna 182
where ever I was needed. One weekend I was asked to fly for a group of women
skydivers who were jumping into a gathering of female pilots, members of a
Pennsylvania chapter of the Ninety-nines, at an airport in
Pennsylvania.
Many women pilots are members of a group called the
Ninety-nines. Amelia Earhart was the first president of the group which
represented ninety-nine of the 117 female pilots at that time.
After flying a few loads of the female
jumpers, I stood around talking with some of the members of the
Ninety-nines. During my chat I mentioned to one of the ladies that my
granddad had taught and made golf clubs for Ms. Earhart. From her body
language and facial expressions, I got the distinct impression that she didn't
believe me.
I then told her about a letter that my granddad had framed and
on his wall in his den. I told her that there was a large, gold medal from
some city in Europe that Ms. Earhart was given by the city. Ms. Earhart
had sent the letter and medal to my granddad as a token of thanks for
helping her play a better game of golf.
At that point, I had everyone's attention.
Two of the women were extremely animated and excited. They were excited
about the medal that granddad had. "Do you have it?"
I told them I didn't know where it was
since granddad had died about 10 years before. They kept saying, "...but
that must be the medal from..." that is unaccounted for. Ms. Earhart
was so famous in Europe that where ever she went she was given 'the keys to
the city' or some gift from the city. Apparently, Ms. Earhart was given a
medal, or medallion, by a European city.
My grandfather had many pieces of
memorabilia and letters in his study. None made as much impression on me as
the Earhart letter. Unfortunately, I can't remember which European city had
given the medallion to her. The
location of the missing medallion that Miss Earhart gave to my granddad as a
token of friendship and thanks for the help he gave her with her golf swing is
another of the many mysteries surrounding the world's most famous female
pilot.
My sister Susan and I have searched everywhere we
could and have not been able to find the missing medal. The Official Amelia
Earhart website can be seen
HERE. Another website with
information about her is
HERE. | 