Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Life

Throwback Thursday: The Wind Beneath His Wings

Welcome to Throwback Thursday, a weekly photo feature in which we sift 116 years of Forward history to find snapshots of women’s lives. Click below for more.

Edith Bowie Hawks was the wind beneath her husband’s wings. Captain Frank Hawks was a famed aviator in the 1920s and ’30s. (A common phrase at the time was “Don’t send it by mail… send it by Hawks.”) Airmen such as Hawks were so popular in their day that they had fan clubs — likely including Forverts readers.

Edith purchased a plane for her husband and then ran a fairly sophisticated weather station from atop the couple’s penthouse on Manhattan’s East Side, from which she kept him apprised of flying conditions.

The couple is pictured in 1929 broadcasting Frank’s radio show from the 18th floor of the Roosevelt Hotel studio of WRNY. Frank died in 1938 in an experimental flight.

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.

In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.

At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.

Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.