Lorraine J. Willinger Kolb

Via the University of Wisconsin, N.Y. University, Finch College and Conover Modeling School I hoped to break into acting, but never got any further than an Ames Brothers record cover. I decided to become a flight attendant in 1962 (in those days called stewardess) for a lark, since I fell in love with France during a student summer trip to Europe (with the help of a Frenchman.) That lark turned into 15 very glamorous, exciting years with the unforgettable Pan American Airways. In 1967, on Yom Kippur, on the beach in Tel Aviv, I met my now husband Henk, a journalist from the Netherlands. As a consequence I became the first flying mother/flight attendant in the airlines history. In 1978 I left Pan Am, after the birth of our third child. The next 15 years we lived in the Washington DC area, where Henk was based as a foreign correspondent. In 1992 I went back to flying, now with United Airlines, as a specialist in Dutch, French and Italian. We recently (May 2006) moved to Scottsdale, where our son in law runs a successful dental practice, apart from being the father of three of our grandchildren. My flying life will be over soon, but we intend to travel, far and close, as often and as long as we can.