Helen Hodge Harris

Hodge was born in Omaha, Nebraska on August 2, 1892.[1] She was educated at the Brownell-Talbot School (then Brownell Hall)[3] before moving to Oakland, California with her family.[4] They appear to have settled in Oakland by roughly 1909, when she married Ralph Newbre.[1] In June 1916, Hodge filed for divorce, claiming Newbre had been unfaithful.[5] A July article mentions her living with her father, and she seems to have reclaimed her maiden name.[4] However, it appears that they may have reconciled: a 1919 article refers to the Newbres as husband and wife,[6] and the book Before Amelia: Women Pilots in the Early Days of Aviation seems to imply that they stayed together until Ralph Newbre's death in the 1930s.[1]

Hodge and her twin sister, Florence "Dot" Hodge,[7] took flying lessons together at Silas Christofferson's school in Redwood City, California,[4] after being initially rejected due to their gender.[1] Their instructor was aviator Frank Bryant,[8] who taught them to fly on a Curtiss-type biplane.[1] A San Francisco Examiner profile written in July 1916 described Helen as "the more venturesome of the couple".[4] Their father, J.B. Hodge, reportedly disapproved of them learning to fly, but "accepted the situation philosophically."[4]

Hodge in Los Gatos, California in 1919

Hodge at the Redwood City aviation school in 1916

Hodge trained at the Christofferson school for six months.[8] During one flight while Hodge was at an altitude of 1500 feet, her plane's motor mount broke, causing the motor to come loose.[6] Hodge managed to land safely, "much to the surprise of even her teachers."[6]

Hodge's first independent flight was made over San Francisco Bay on August 19, 1916,[9] and she received her pilot's license on November 12, 1916.[8] At the time, she planned to become an exhibition flyer.[8] Though she did perform several exhibition flights for the Christofferson school, most of her flights appear to have been simply for her own pleasure.[1] Hodge was the eleventh female pilot in the United States to receive her license,[1] and possibly the last American woman to become a licensed pilot before the start of World War I.[1] During the war, she was a flight instructor for American cadets.[1]

Hodge married Frank Harris in 1937 after moving to Los Angeles.[3] There, she opened a machine shop specializing in airplane tools.[3] She supervised a crew of twenty men and fourteen women,[3] and could operate machinery herself as needed.[1] Frank Harris had passed away by 1950.[3] Hodge died in Pomona, California, in 1967.[1]