Even before Carole Hopson was born, she knew she wanted to fly.
“When you’re coming through the little embryo conveyor belt, somebody puts pixie dust in your ear … and you just can’t get it out your whole life,” she said.
That pixie dust sparked in Hopson at a young age a sense of curiosity, adventure and travel. The wanderlust was stoked by her grandmother, Lorene, who lined her home’s stairwell windowsill with little cappuccino cups of places she visited — nearly every state.
That wanderlust stayed with Hopson as an adult — and changed her career trajectory.
After a 20-plus-year career in journalism and corporate America, Hopson went to flight school. She earned her pilot’s license at age 50 and now pilots Boeing 737s as a United Airlines captain.
“I’ve got the best office in the sky,” she said.
Hopson also has written a book about her inspiration to fly — aviatrix Bessie Coleman. “A Pair of Wings” recounts the life story of Coleman, the first American to earn a civilian pilot’s license, a few years before Amelia Earhart.
Hopson will be the keynote speaker at the Delta Memorial Endowment Fund’s 47th Literary Luncheon, at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, April 26, at Saint Kate – The Arts Hotel, 139 E. Kilbourn Ave. The annual event raises funds for college scholarships while highlighting Black authors.
Hopson’s debut novel is historical fiction that distills the last decade of Coleman’s life and how the dawn of aviation awakens her desire to fly. Encountering resistance, Coleman travels to Europe, where she learns to fly from French and German WWI combat pilots. She returns to the U.S. on barnstorming tours, doing aerial tricks across the country, determined to dispel doubters and haters.
“I had to know who this person was,” Hopson said. “And it took me 12 years to write this book.”
Many people, she said, don’t know Coleman’s story.
“She was long before World War II,” Hopson said. “She was two years before Amelia, 20 years before the Tuskegee Airmen and 50 years before ‘Hidden Figures.’ She was badass. Why don’t we know about her?”
Like Coleman, Hopson took an unconventional path to become a pilot. Her husband gifted her flying lessons after learning about her desire to fly. At 30, Hopson took lessons with people 10 years her junior.
She flew through flight school in eight months and became a flight trainer to accumulate flight hours. Then 9/11 happened.
Hopson paused her aviation career to raise two children. After a 14-year hiatus, she became a pilot for ExpressJet in 2016 at 54 and a United captain at 58.
Hopson wants women attending the Delta event to be inspired by her story as much as Coleman’s. Both knew they wanted to fly but had to overcome obstacles — racism, sexism or ageism — to achieve their dreams.
Hopson said people often asked if she was afraid to give up a six-figure corporate salary for a job making $16 an hour to achieve her dream.
“I was much more afraid to say, ‘Oh my goodness. I never got to do what I wanted to do.’ That, to me, was much more frightening,” Hopson said. “I wanted to fly.”
She’s helping other women fly, too, through her Jet Black Foundation, which aims to send 100 African American women to flight school by 2035.
Hopson is among a long line of notable Black authors to address the Delta luncheon. Since 1977, the event has hosted authors from Maya Angelou and science fiction writer Tananarive Due to screenwriter and TV producer Attica Locke, of “Empire” fame and LGBTQ+ novelist E. Lynn Harris.
“We’ve had some heavy hitters over the years,” Dr. Theopa Christine Tolbert, president of the Delta Memorial Endowment Fund, said.
Tolbert praised Hopson’s book, saying it doesn’t read like a debut.
“Carole Hopson did her homework,” she said.
Hopson’s story is empowering, said Rayven Peterson, fund vice president and luncheon co-chair. Most people, she said, are afraid to change careers in mid-life to pursue a passion.
Tickets for the event are $100, available online at dmefmke.org/events and include a copy of “A Pair of Wings.”
The DMEF works in partnership with the Milwaukee Alumna Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. This year, the sorority will award $20,000 in scholarships. Since its inception, it has awarded more than $300,000 in aid.
Unlike most scholarship funds, the money goes directly to students, not their school. Students can use it to pay for more than room and board, like for books, a laptop or dorm-room items.
“We are very intentional about that,” Peterson said. “The kids still need things to get there (to college) and, a lot of times, that’s a barrier and will keep a lot of them from going to school. …
“We’re working with young people that really have financial need.”
La Risa Lynch is a community affairs reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Email her at llynch@gannett.com
