"Azellia-White" (1913 Gonzales,Texas)

Is the first African-American woman to earn a pilot's license in Texas.She and her husband ran the Sky Ranch Flying Service,an airport and flight school for African-American aviators.In 1936 she married Hulon "Pappy" White. Five years later they relocated to Tuskegee,Alabama, where Hulon worked as an airplane mechanic with the Tuskegee Airmen. Azellia was inspired by a visit from Eleanor Roosevelt in 1941,after which Eleanor encouraged her husband to let the Tuskegee Airmen,fly in World War II.Azellia began training there, flying a Taylorcraft of several Tuskegee Airmen. She earned her private pilot's license on March 26,1946.

After World War II ended, the Whites moved to South Houston.Together with Tuskegee Airmen Ben Stevenson and Elton "Ray" Thomas,they  founded the Sky Ranch Flying Service in 1946. Located on the Taylor-Stevenson Ranch,the Sky Ranch Flying Service was an airport for Houston's African American community and provided charter flights as well as flying lessons.Azellia was not an official owner,She was popular around the airport.Flying students often asked her to take them for rides,and she would sometimes play pranks on them in midair,taking them by surprise with stunts.Because travel by land exposed African-Americans to potential harassment or assault,she would sometimes fly from town to town with her niece to go shopping.Sky Ranch Service when laws restricted the use of the G.I. Bill and caused business to slow.

Azellia was inducted into the Texas Aviation Hall of Fame in April in 2018.In Houston the Aviation Science Lab at Sterling High School was named in her honor.Principal Justin Fuentes called her "a powerful reminder to our students that they can be anything they want to be and achieve.No one can stop them.