Dorothy Layne McIntyre
*Dorothy Layne McIntyre was born on this date in 1917. She is a Black aviator (retired) and educator.
Dorothy Arlene Layne was born in Leroy, New York. She completed her elementary and secondary school education in Leroy, enrolled in West Virginia State College, and was accepted into the Civilian Pilot Training Program. Layne then moved to Baltimore to live with her sister and began teaching aircraft mechanics at the War Production Training Scholl No. 453 in Baltimore while working full-time as a secretary for the Baltimore Urban League. She received a pilot's license from the Civil Aeronautics Authority in 1940, becoming one of the first licensed Black female pilots.
She applied for admission to WASP, a program staffed by women pilots who ferried bombers during the war but was denied because she was Black. During World War II, Layne taught aircraft mechanics at the War Production Training School in Baltimore, Maryland, while working as a secretary for the Baltimore Urban League. After college, Layne moved to Cleveland, Ohio, to work as a bookkeeper for a Black-owned company owned by businessman Alonzo Wright, and she taught for a time in the Cleveland Public Schools.
There, Layne met and married Francis Benjamin McIntyre; the couple has two daughters, Dianne and Donna. McIntyre was the subject of the dance production Take-Off From a Forced Landing, created by her daughter, choreographer Dianne McIntyre. She is profiled in Distinguished African Americans in Aviation and Space Science. In 1994, McIntyre was awarded the Bessie Coleman Award; in 2001, she was recognized by the International Women's Air and Space Museum at the Burke Lakefront Airport in Ohio. She was also inducted into the Cleveland Educators and Alumni Hall of Fame and received a proclamation from Tuskegee Airmen North Coast Chapter 17 in 2002.
She had been married to Francis Benjamin McIntyre for over fifty years, residing in Cleveland's Mount Pleasant Community; her husband passed away in 2005. She makes a few appearances at functions and gives informal, impromptu speeches. McIntyre was a pioneer in aviation for women and African Americans and received numerous honors for her achievements, including being a member of the Tuskegee Airmen Alumni Association.
