Maude “Maxine” Walker was born on this day in 1919, in Forsyth County, to Mr. and Mrs. John Walker.
Maxine became enamored with airplanes and flying when she was a young girl living in Walkertown. She and her brother, Pete, flew in a World War I tri-motor airplane. She wanted to fly again.
After she graduated from high school, Maxine worked for R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, and saved as much money as she could to pay for flying lessons.
She received her Private Pilot’s license in 1941, and became a commercial flight instructor. Tom Davis, founder of Piedmont Airlines, was one of her flying buddies. He hired Maxine to handle reservations and fixed base operations for Piedmont Airlines. She went to Richmond in 1954 to expand the reservation base for Piedmont Airlines.
In 1959 Maxine took the job as an Air Traffic Controller at Byrd International Airport in Richmond. She was one of the few female, non-military, air traffic controllers in the United States. Maxine was honored on many occasions for her work in air traffic control, and received many flying awards. She retired in 1981. She was inducted into the Virginia Aviation Hall of Fame in 2002.
Maxine was a member and state officer of “The Ninety Nines,” the women’s international flying organization founded by Amelia Earhart.
She passed away in 2013.
The photo above was taken for a feature article and published in the Winston-Salem Journal in 1946.
Photo courtesy of Forsyth County Public Library Photograph Collection.
