"Janet Bragg (March 24,1907-April 11,1993)

Born Janet Harmon in Griffin,Georgia she was the daughter of Cordia Batts Harmon and Samuel Harmon,a brick contractor.Her maternal grandfather was a freed slave of Spanish descent,and

her maternal grandfather was a Cherokee.Janet the youngest of seven children transferred from

public elementary school to St.Stephens Episcopal School,a better learning environment in those days of strict segregation.She also attended Fort Valley Episcopal High School,in Fort Valley,Georgia.Janet next went to Spelman Seminary (now Spelman College) in Atlanta,Georgia majoring in nursing.Her training took place at MacBicar Hospital on the campus where she was one of two out of an entering class of twelve who survived the probationary period.The hospitals nursing students assisted in operations and performed other procedures customarily handled by interns.As a result they received first-rate training.Janet received her registered nurse degree in 1929.After graduation from Spelman,she moved to Rockford Illinois,to live with a sister.While there, she passed the Illinois nurses` license test.Unable to find professional employment in Rockford,she moved to Chicago,where she became a nurse at Wilson Hospital.About 1931,while working at Wilson,she met and married Evans Waterford;which lasted only a few years she kept the name Waterford until the married again.In 1933,Janet enrolled Aeronautical University ground school.Her education was in meteorology,aeronautics,and aircraft mechanics.Because the school owned no airplanes.It could not provide actual flight instructions,so she decided it made more to purchase her own airplane,which she could rent out.The plane costing $600,was the first of three she would own.Finding an airfield where she could learn to fly proved impossible.Black pilots were not allowed to fly out of airports used by whites.The class at the ground,school with the aid of their instructions,formed the Challenger Aero Club.The group purchased land built and airfield in the small, all-Black town of Robbins, Illinois.In the spring of 1934,after thirty-five solo hours,Janet passed the test for the private pilots license.Also during the 1930s she wrote a weekly column,"Negro Aviation,"in the Chicago Defender under the byline of Janet Waterford.In 1943,during World War II,Janet and several black women applied for appointments with the Women's Auxiliary Service Pilots(WASPS).The interviewer rejected her and her appeal was unsuccessful.She then applied to the military nurse corps but informed that the quota for black nurses was filled.Janet went to CPTP School at Tuskegee,Alabama,to obtain her commercial pilot's license.After successfully completing her written work,she took and passed her flight test, a bigoted instructor refused her a license.Janet returned to Chicago,where she passed the test with ease,the first black woman to do so.Janet continued to work as a health inspector with an eye to start her own business.Along with her brother,they purchased property for a health care facility for patients on welfare.The venture grew into a nursing home business that eventually housed sixty patients.Janet married Sumner Bragg in 1951,and he joined her in running the business.They had no children.Janet befriended several Ethiopian students studying in the U.S. and was invited to Ethiopia to meet the emperor,Haile Selassie,in 1955.They operated several nursing homes,successfully until 1972.Later in the 70's,she traveled widely in Africa,leading tour groups.In 1986,after her husband's death,she moved to Arizona.Janet was active in Such civic organizations as the Tucson Arizona Urban League,Habitat for Humanity,and the Adopt-a-Scholar Program at Pima College in Tucson.Janet achievements were eventually recognized.Invited to appear at aviation events around the country,she received many awards and honors.