Thanks, praise belong to Bush, Shults

Barbara Bush came to Torrington, and I can remember following her and a contingent of prominent local women down Water Street and up Main to City Hall, where she was to take part in some sort of ceremony. The year, I believe, was 1992.

What I remember most vividly about her visit was her ability to put everyone at ease as she led the procession along the sidewalks to City Hall. Smiling and chit-chatting all the way, she seemed not the wife of the president of the United States, but a neighbor out shopping with friends. While I was not able to speak to her, I could see she was friendly and easy to like and not at all intimidating.

That is the impression of her that I retain to this day — a great lady and a great American. Eventually, she would join Abigail Adams as the only women to have been the wife of one president and the mother of another. (I wonder, was Abigail a similar personality?)

Last Wednesday and Thursday, while reporting on Barbara Bush’s death, the papers were full of praise for another calm, fearless woman, Capt. Tammie Jo Shults, a Southwest Airlines pilot. One paper ran the headline “Southwest Pilot A True American Hero” at the top of Page One over the story of how Shults safely anded her airplane, flying on one engine after the other had exploded, in Philadelphia with 149 people aboard.

And then, when the plane was safely down, Tammie Jo left the cockpit and spoke comforting words to every passenger. It’s called coolness under pressure.

When we board an airplane, most of us never think of possible emergencies or mechanical failures, knowing that pilots are trained to handle just about anything. Once a frequent flyer, I remember boarding a plane in Los Angeles one morning and glancing into the cockpit as I went by.

A female pilot sat in the captain’s seat and, what to my wondering eyes? ... the co-pilot was also a woman. That was of no concern to me, but it was to the young guy sitting next to me on the flight, a man who hadn’t flown much. He said, with something akin to alarm, “God, don’t you think at least one of them should be a man?”

I said, “Neither one would be there if they weren’t fully capable,” and Tammie Jo, whose husband also flies for Southwest, proved me right last Tuesday.

Bush and Shults are two marvelous examples of American womanhood at its shining and courageous best. I’ll bet my new hat all of us know women like them. Maybe a close relative, a mother or sister, or a grandma. Think about it. You’ll come up with a woman who has done great things over the long haul, like the inimitable Bush, or proved herself a true heroine in a moment of do-or-die crisis with scores of lives at stake, like the undaunted Shults.

History is replete with exemplary women who have shown courage and perseverance through the most trying ordeals.

Some first ladies are in the forefront. Bush is one. Jackie Kennedy, whose dignity and courage helped still the fears and sorrow of the nation when JFK was assassinated, stands out. Eleanor Roosevelt’s accomplishments, so richly documented in Doris Kearns Goodwin’s, “No Ordinary Time,” are unmatched. And as we go back, we find Abigail Adams, Dolly Madison and a few more who have contributed much for the common good.

As for airplane pilots, the list is long.

Start with Amelia Earhart and just keep adding on, making Shults the most recent. Remember the women who flew in World War II, delivering planes around the country and include astronauts like Sally Ride. You won’t run out.

Thank heaven, as Maurice Chavalier used to sing, for little girls.

And big ones too, may I add.