User:DanyDivitoTargaryen/Edith Lauterbach

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Edith Lauterbach (October 1st,1921– February 4th, 2013), was a flight attendant and co-founder of the Association of Flight Attendants. She is known for having helped abolish many of the former harmful practices of airlines and developing crucial safety standards still in practice today.

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Early Life

Edith Edna Lauterbach was born October 1st, 1921, to Richard B Lauterbach and Prudence T Lauterbach in Oxnard California, a beach town about sixty miles north of Los Angeles. Edith was the youngest of the Lauterbach’s children with two elder brothers, Richard who was ten years older than Edith and Henry who was three years older. It seems that for the majority of Ediths childhood, however, it was just her, henry and their parents. Richard was not present on the 1930’s census, taken around his 19th year, indicating that he left the house quite soon after turning eighteen. Edith’s father taught Chemistry and her mother oversaw the family’s farm, “planting flowers and peanuts.” Around 1930 the family moved to the neighboring city of Camillo California, they remained there for about seven years, returning to Oxnard around 1937.

Edith attended Oxnard High School from 1934-1939, there she excelled in her academics, shown through her admittance to the schools ‘Scholarship Society’ who’s entry was “determined by points earned during the semester.” In addition to the Scholarship Society, Edith was a part of the Girls Band, World Friendship Club, Science Club, and theater. She starred as Mrs. Sereeny in the schools 1937 production of Tom Sawyer.

Following high school, Edith attended University of California, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from their “College of Letters and Science.” It was detailed in a later news article that her specific degree was in “political science.”

Early Career

Edith began her career as a ‘Sky Girl’ in 1944 with United Airlines. At this point in the airline industry, airplanes were still beginning in terms of engineering and so the roles of a flight attendant included the usual catering to passengers, but also crawling on their hands and knees during intense turbulence and help clean up after that turbulence. The role of a 1940’s flight attendant was tough, even more so were the strict rules and regulations they were made to follow. The airline controlled everything about their physical appearance from the color of their nail polish and lipstick to the amount if weight they could gain. If they did not abide by these guidelines, got married, or turned thirty years old the airline could and would give them the boot. Despite these rigid regulations and tedious often taxing days in the air, their pay was little more than $100 a month, or what would equal about $19,000 a year.

For most women, this job was never meant to be a long-term career. The pay and the airlines would hardly allow it. Edith was no different. When she originally joined United Airlines, Edith intended to only fly for one year, gain the experience and resume her life. However, in 1945 she joined the ranks of former United head stewardess Ada Brown and three other women in beginning the fight for what would become the Association of Flight Attendants.

The Early AFA

Having grown tired of the shameful treatment and exploitative working conditions imposed on them by the airline, Edith along with Ada Brown, Frances Hall, Sally Thometz, and Sally Watt formed “the first union run and controlled by women.” Edith and her founding colleagues were inexperienced in both legal matters and labor organizations, two crucial aspects in the formation of a union. Nonetheless through the intimidation, threats, and recounting past organization attempts the five women persisted. Despite many of the woman having been raised in houses were “daddy just didn’t want his daughter to belong to a union” and themselves being “anti-union by upbringing” they understood the importance of a union for the group.

By the fall of 1945 Edith and her team established a union 200 flight attendants strong with councils in “four cities, elected national officers, and drafted a constitution and bylaws.” The first president of the ASLA, elected during that initial year was Ada Brown. Despite the success of their debut year, the ASLA worked with a very thin margin of error in its infancy. At one point they operated with such a “shoestring budget” the union sustained only through “donations from individual pilots.”

Impact and Legacy

There are records of Edith Lauterbach ever marrying or having a family of her own. By all accounts it appears that she dedicated her entire life to the AFA and being a flight attendant. Traveling via aircraft has been improved in ways that are immeasurable both for flight attendants and passengers, much of it is due to the forty years Edith Lauterbach spent in the air. To name only a few Edith helped waive the rules requiring flight attendants to retire at thirty-two. Her improvements do not stop at the work place, Edith was instrumental in the creation of “Federal Regulations for Flight Attendant Safety and Evacuations” in 1952. Ediths work in 1952 lead to the establishment of the ninety Second evacuation standard seen across air travel today. Additionally, she is the first flight attendant in the AFA to reach forty years of service.

To honor the countless hours of effort Edith performed over her forty years both in and out of the air. The Association of Flight Attendants established ‘Founders Day’ on October 1st, 2019, the 98th birthday of their last surviving founder – Edith Lauterbach. While this day was proclaimed on Edith’s birthday, its intention was and is to show appreciation for the risks and sacrifices taken by all five of the founders, including Edith.