http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/final-flight-wasp-katherine-willinger?f=puball
Katherine Willinger was born in The Bronx, NYC, on July 12, 1919 and spent much of her life in the city she loved.
In 1943, she learned of the experimental flying training program for women pilots, applied, and became one of 108 young women who paid their way to Sweetwater, Texas to enter the training class of 44-W-8 to become Women Airforce Service Pilots.
After successfully completing over seven months of Army Air Force flight training, she and 48 classmates graduated in October of 1944 and received their silver WASP wings. They were then stationed at different air fields and air bases across America.
Katherine was stationed at Goodfellow Field in San Angelo, Texas. At Goodfellow she flew At-6’s, BT-13’s and PT-19’s as part of the flight training given the aviation cadets stationed at the 2533rd Base Unit.
On 20 December 1944, the WASP were disbanded. As Katherine later wrote, “After deactivation, I returned home, put flying behind me, and went into the world of business.” She tackled her new challenges just as she had those as a WASP, becoming the first woman president in the business of manufacturing photograph record albums.
Her client list included Angel Records, Capitol Records and Decca, among others. She considered the work challenging, as well as rewarding. In 1970, Katherine sold her company and traveled the world.