SOUTH BRISTOL, N.Y. (WXXI News & AP) A 100-year-old woman honored at a New York air show last weekend for her World War II service as a civilian pilot flying military aircraft has died.
According to her obituary posted on the Johnson-Kennedy Funeral Home website, Dawn Seymour died Tuesday at her home in the Finger Lakes region. Her obituary says she died peacefully at home, overlooking Canandaigua Lake.
The Rochester native earned a bachelor's degree from Cornell University in 1939. During WWII she served with the Women's Airforce Service Pilots, known as WASPs. Seymour and her fellow WASPs flew bombers and other warplanes in the U.S. to free up male pilots for combat service overseas.
In 2010, the WASPs were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, among the nation's highest civilian honors.
Seymour was among the female aviators honored during the National Warplane Museum air show in Geneseo. She was featured in a WXXI-TV documentary called: War Letters Rochester Writes Home, which included letters and other remembrances of local residents who served in various wars.
You can watch the documentaryhere, and also learn more about Dawn Seymour atthis website.
