AMELIA AVIATOR AMELIA EARHART SOARED, BUT HER FEET WERE FIRMLY PLANTED IN THE VALLEY, WHERE SHE LIVED AND WORKED.

Byline: Susan Abram, Staff Writer

Even today, the sepia-toned photographs of a short-haired, gap-toothed beauty leaning against a polished Lockheed Vega give Les Copeland the shivers.

In them, he can sense her love of adventure, can recall the enduring story of how man-made wings gave the young woman the freedom to be herself and the courage to fly farther and farther until one day, Amelia Earhart vanished.

"If Amelia had survived, I wonder what she would have accomplished," Copeland said dreamily one recent morning as he flipped through donated photographs of Earhart that he keeps inside a shrine to aviation.

"I bet she would have been part of the space program," added Copeland, who is president of the Burbank Aviation Museum. "I bet she would have gone to the moon."

More than 80 years after "The Queen of the Air" disappeared while trying to fly around the world, Earhart remains a beloved local figure, an icon who still leaves a deep impression on the minds of those who met or were influenced by her.

And one who left deep footprints across the San Fernando Valley.

Earhart and her husband, publisher George Putnam, moved to Toluca Lake in the 1930s and lived in a Spanish colonial-style home at 10515 Valley Spring Lane. She flew out of Grand Central Air Terminal in Glendale and of course, Burbank.

While living in the Valley, Earhart played golf at the Lakeside Golf Course and did research at the North Hollywood library that would one day be her namesake.

It is believed she bought her last pair of shoes at Rathbun'sdepartment store, which stood on Lankershim Boulevard.

"All the records she basically set were done while she was living in the Valley," said Guy Weddington McCreary, who served as president of the Amelia Earhart Bronzing Committee.

"We can claim her as ours," McCreary said.

She pushed boundaries

Interest in the Earhart legend is expected to grow with the release Friday of the movie "Amelia," starring Hilary Swank and Richard Gere. Earhart admirers hope a new generation will be inspired by her life and accomplishments, rather than focus on her disappearance over the Pacific Ocean.

The film is based on "East to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart," written by author Susan Butler.

Butler spent 10 years working on the biography. She interviewed those closest to Earhart to document her life, because so much had already been written about her mysterious disappearance.

"She was loved, and she was so supportive," Butler said. "She had a great career, a great husband and a great lover."

Butler said Earhart "tried to punch holes through the perceptions men had about women pilots," including the one that females couldn't fly while they were menstruating. Interest in Earhart persists because she pushed the boundaries of what women could do, Butler and others said.

Recently, Earhart's flight goggles worn during her 1932 solo trans-Atlantic flight were sold at auction for $141,600 - more than the Martin D-28 guitar played by Elvis Presley during his final Las Vegas performance.

Loved North Hollywood

Earhart's local ties ranged around the Valley, from North Hollywood to the former Lockheed Co. site in Burbank, which manufactured her wooden Vega and twin-engine Electra aircraft.

"She was a big part of Burbank," Copeland said. He and his group takes care of the Portal of the Folded Wings-Shrine to Aviation at the Pierce Bros. Memorial Park in North Hollywood.

Fifteen years ago, members of the museum rallied to save a hangar that Earhart and Howard Hughes used within what is now Bob Hope Airport in Burbank.

The hangar stood at Hollywood Way and Winona Avenue and was named a California Point of Historical Interest. But it was damaged during the 1994 Northridge Earthquake and airport commissioners said it stood too close to the east-west runway. They chose to demolish it.

In 2003, McCreary's Amelia Earhart Bronzing Committee, along with the local chamber of commerce, the Jaycees, the San Fernando Valley Ninety Nines and Zonta International, unveiled an 8-foot-tall bronze statue of Earhart holding an airplane propeller at North Hollywood Park, next to the Amelia Earhart Branch Library.

The library is planning its 80th anniversary on Nov. 14, and still features some Earhart memorabilia.

In an interview with the Daily News in 1991, Earhart's personal photographer, Albert Bresnik, said the famous aviator wanted to start her own family in the San Fernando Valley after she returned from what would become her ill-fated flight.

"She loved North Hollywood," Bresnik said.

"They were very happy here. When they built that house, they found a home and they planned on staying there."

While several theories persist, it is widely believed that Earhart and navigator Paul Noonan disappeared near Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean in 1937 while attempting to circle the world at the equator. She was 39.

While she set records for her aviation feats, her accomplishments went far beyond that field.

Flier had other talents

Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic but she also had been a nurse's aide, treating the wounded of World War I. She was the first to solo from Hawaii to California, but she also designed clothes and luggage. She was the first woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross, but she also wrote poetry and edited an aviation column for Cosmopolitan magazine.

"She's still someone we look up to," said Bertie Duffy, past chairwoman of the San Fernando Valley Ninety-Nines International Organization of Women Pilots, which Earhart co-founded and presided over.

"She really pushed aviation ahead and let people know that women could do it, too."

Midge Sherwood was a college student in Columbia, Mo., when she interviewed Earhart just before she embarked on her last journey.

Sherwood, an author and San Marino resident who went on to become the first spokeswoman for a major airline, was the only female journalist in a room of men and after the news conference, Earhart sought her out.

"I just stood there and listened and after the (news conference) she pointed her finger at me and said, 'You there ... I want to see you."'

"Oh mercy ... her dignity, her respect and her concern for others shone through very much," said Sherwood, who declines to give her age.

"She was a remarkable woman and very much for the advancement of women."

Kelsey Lomen, a 16-year-old pilot from Eagle Rock and member of the Ninety-Nines, said Earhart's influence isn't lost on the young.

Kelsey said she would like to become a charter plane pilot.

Earhart "was a pioneer and I think the influence she's had on the world will be re-introduced by the movie," she said.

Ceci Stratford, also a member of the Ninety-Nines, said Earhart's spirit motivated her to get her pilot's license in 1975, then go on to teach flying and mentor young people at Whiteman Airport in Pacoima.

"She wasn't just a pilot," Stratford said. "She had a much broader scope of life and maybe that's why she still influences people today.

"Hers is a timeless story of someone who offered so much to the world, not only for women but also for men. Her legacy is 'Go for your dreams."'

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CAPTION(S):

A national hero, Amelia Earhart, who wasn't afraid to break down bar riers, had put down roots in Toluca Lake, where she and her publisher husband, George P. Putnam, had bought a home before the aviator's final flight.