Sun Days on Orcas | What you should know about Orcasonian Beverly Franklet

||| SUN DAYS ON ORCAS by EDEE KULPER |||

If you haven’t already met her, Beverly Franklet is a stunning go-getter. Not in a hyper, can’t-sit-still kind of way but in a calm, adventurous, live-life-to-its-fullest sense.

Do you remember several years ago when Michell Marshall decided to put up a white board at the back of The Office Cupboard that said, “25 Things You Don’t Know About Me,” asking one featured person each week or each month to come in and write down a bunch of things that might interest or surprise readers about them?

I’m going to borrow Michell’s format this week because I recently learned so many things about Beverly Franklet that I can’t keep them all to myself!

I’ve respected Beverly for many years now. She has been a pilot for the Annual Young Eagles Day each June since we moved here (except during the pandemic), volunteering her time, plane, and gas in order to take kids up for 25-minute flights leaving from the hangar next to the airport. But there’s so much more about her life that you’ve got to know.

Beverly Franklet

Beverly…

1. Always wanted to be an astronaut.
2. Told her mother at the age of ten that she wanted to become the youngest licensed female pilot in the country.
3. Had every qualification when she got older for becoming an astronaut except for one: she had no military jet experience. Only men at the time did.
4. Was presented to the Queen of England at the age of 20 as a US representative for the World Association of Girl Scouts and Girl Guides. She traveled to England but didn’t own anything formal to wear, so she was told that in lieu of formal attire, she could still be considered appropriate by wearing her Girl Scouts uniform, so she did – and borrowed white gloves, which are mandatory. When she was presented to the Queen and Prince Philip, the only words exchanged were from Prince Philip. He said, “I see you are wearing an American uniform.” After that, he asked her to explain why.
5. Became a good water-skier.
6. Took a university course in hot-air ballooning and began working and crewing for balloon races.
7. Became a licensed pilot in 1992 when only 6 percent of pilots were women.
8. Happened to be living in a community that NASA decided to move into – El Lago, Texas. Suddenly all of her friends and neighbors were NASA astronauts and their families.
9. Has climbed mountains on every continent.
10. Visited Antarctica once and liked the experience so much that she wanted to go again but had to secure a job there in order to do so. She got a job as an outdoor painter (!) and didn’t even wear a coat while she was painting in the Antarctic air.
11. Tried scuba diving.
12. Enjoyed skydiving in her late 50s.
13. Was sleeping under the stars one night and awakened to a black bear sniffing her face. “I’ve had a lot of bear encounters and they’ve all been nice to me.”
14. Flew about 130 kids over the years on Young Eagles Day.
15. Decided to sell her beloved plane, Spirit, due to glaucoma. She doesn’t plan to stop flying, though. She just felt it wise to stop for a little while.
16. Says her attitude is something she was born with. “My attitude is this – ‘I can do this.’ I’m not scared of things.”
17. Goes outside every single night before bedtime. “I’m an extremely grateful person. I have never failed to go outside to do prayer and meditation, no matter how hard the wind is blowing.”

The photo (above) is of Beverly just moments before taking off on a Young Eagles Day flight.