SAPPINGTON, Mo. (KMOX)--Trying to feel like a kid again is a part of growing up. Evelyn Kidd, 94, has spent a lifetime aboard small airplanes alongside her late-husband Gene and was recently given the chance to go up in the air again.
"We had a lot of fun flying. Lots of fun flying. Good memories," said Kidd.
Kidd was gifted a one-hour flight in a Cessna out of Spirit of St. Louis Airport, by Cedarhurst of Tesson Heights, where she is a resident. She will make the flight next week on Tuesday, June 11.
"My husband and I both had, we had an airplane and he was a pilot," Kidd said, "I took lessons, but I never soloed. I could fly, I could take off and land and do everything. But I couldn't navigate. I was up with the instructor and I think he was going to let me solo and he said, 'take me back to the airport.' I couldn't even find the airport and it was right below me."
Kidd tells KMOX she and her husband would fly at their leisure wherever they wanted to go. First in their own plane and then renting later in life when they had the urge.
"We were flying back from Memphis one day and my husband said, 'I'm sleepy, I'm gonna take a nap. Just keep it pointed to the northwest.'" Kidd remembered. "When he woke up, he said, 'Where are we?' I said, 'I don't know, I've just got it to the northwest.' He flew to the Mississippi River and followed it home. He never worried about anything. He could always find his way."