Hazel Lee loved to play cards and she loved to play pranks. And she loved to fly planes.

During WWII, the U.S. didn’t have enough male pilots, so the Women Air Force Service Pilots was created. Hazel was invited to join.

Her job was to deliver aircraft to points of embarkation, from which they were shipped to Europe and the Pacific. The group worked 7 days a week with little time off.

“I’ll take and deliver anything,” she said. Which was her attitude – work hard, get everything necessary done.

On November 23, 1944, flying in bad weather in North Dakota, she crashed with another plane upon landing. She passed away two days later, the last of 38 female pilots to die during WWII.