In the 1930s, Pinckert worked for the Southern California Gas Co., and was taught by a co-worker how to fly. She then married her flight instructor, Joe Brier, and in 1939 went on to become a flight instructor herself — the first female flight instructor licensed by the then-new Civil Aviation Authority.
She didn’t just stay with the basics: “I was the only one in this area licensed to teach aerobatics, which I loved,” she said years later. When her husband flew for the Army Air Corps in World War II, she joined up too — as a non-combat “WASP” (Women Airforce Service Pilot), helping the war effort by ferrying planes, including B-17 bombers, and training male pilots. She and her husband operated a private airport in San Bernardino, Calif., for 40 years, and ran a charter service that took people to Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Evelyn “Pinky” Brier retired from flying when she was 70, and died January 20 from pneumonia. She was 98.