March 9, 1957: Pioneering Korean-American Journalist, Early Advocate for Hawaiian CAP Wing Dies in Plane Crash

On this date in 1957, Sarah Park, a 29 year old Korean-American journalist for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, died in a plane crash while covering a tsunami warning off the Hawaiian cost.

Besides being a trail-blazing Korean-American and women journalist, Park learned to fly at an early age.  As a teenager in the early 1950s, she went to the mainland and lobbied CAP leaders to allow the American territory to have a CAP wing.

An excerpt from KoreAm:

Early on, young Sarah displayed a sense of courage and tenaciousness impressive even by today’s standards. According to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Park attended the Maret School in Washington, D.C., where she learned to fly a plane. She took her first solo flight at age 16. That same year, Park started lobbying to get a Civil Air Patrol Unit for Hawaii. According to one article, “To make an impression (and hide her age) she, in her own words, ‘put on a slinky black dress, lipstick and a floppy hat’ and went to New York City to see the top C.A.P. general and ask for a Hawaii unit.” The general told her Hawaii wasn’t eligible because it wasn’t a state. So, “As Brigadier General Earle Johnson told it later: ‘She practically camped on General Spaatz’s desk until he told someone to see about changing the rules to admit Hawaii.’”

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