Edna Marvel Gardner was born in 1902 in
Mankato, Minnesota, U.S. Her father died in a train accident when she was 8, she was raised by her mother. She trained to become a registered
nurse, earning her certification in 1924. She took her first flight in 1926, from
Renton,
Washington. Her first solo was on January 1, 1931, and she received her
pilot's license in May 1931. The following year, she joined the
Navy Nurse Corps in Washington, D.C., and taught flying at several nearby airports. She resigned from the Nurse Corps in 1935, preferring to spend her time flying and teaching flying. Beginning in 1930, she participated in over a hundred air races, winning more than two dozen of them and placing in another dozen. She won the
Women's International Air Race four times (1953, 1958, 1960, and 1961). Her last win came in 1967, and her last race was in 1972. She owned and ran the New Orleans Air College at
Shusham Airport from 1935 to 1941. During World War II, she trained hundreds of military pilots at
Meacham Field and the Spartan School of Aviation. After marrying George M. Whyte, she operated Aero Enterprise Flight School with him in
Fort Worth, Texas, until his death in 1970. She then opened
Aero Valley Airport in nearby
Roanoke, where she continued flight instruction. She received over 80 aviation awards, including the Charles Lindbergh Lifetime Achievement Award and the 1967 Aviation Woman of the Year award from the Women's National Aeronautical Association. She was a charter member (#10) of the
Whirly-Girls and the first woman to be an honorary member of the
Daedalians, a worldwide fraternity of military pilots. She served as president of the women aviator's association
Ninety-Nines from 1955 to 1957. In 1985, Whyte was inducted into the
Texas Women's Hall of Fame. In 1991, at the age of 89, she published her autobiography,
Rising Above It (coauthored with
Ann Lewis Cooper). Whyte died the following year. Her papers are held by the
University of North Texas. ==Partial list of races won==