Read on Twitter
At the corner of Cochran and Odlum Drives! A brief thread on this location to start the week!
In the fall of 1932, newly-licensed Jackie Cochran left the beauty industry for a career as an aviatrix. She was one of 588 licensed women pilots in the United States, and of that number, fewer than sixty held advanced licenses like transport, commercial, and instrument ratings.
She wanted to be one of them. Jackie's quest took her to CA where she reconnected with a former suitor named Ted Marshall, now a Naval pilot who agreed to teach her in his off time. Jackie bought a Travel Air trainer, hired a math tutor, and moved to Long Beach where Ted was.
Flying in California saw Jackie cram years of instruction into a matter of months, and in her spare time she explored the California countryside from the coast all the way inland to the Coachella Valley, and she fell in love with the desert.
To Jackie, it felt calm, the only place where the buzzing energy that propelled her forward was quieted. She bought twenty acres of land and began planning the dream house she would build for herself and Floyd. When she told him about it, he purchased close to 900 adjacent acres.
Jackie and Floyd built a sprawling compound in Indio-- the Cochran Odlum Ranch -- but sold it in the mid-1970s as their money ran out; here's the couple touring the facility not long after the sale.
Today it's a residential community and golf course with only traces of Jackie and Floyd, among which are streets bearing their names, along with names of their famous friends who were guests at the Ranch over the years.
Jackie is the main figure in my latest book, Fighting For Space, which is being released in paperback with some updated research on February 16! Available however you like to buy books, but here's one handy link! https://www.amazon.com/Fighting-Space-Pilots-Historic-Spaceflight/dp/1538716054/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1573778582&sr=8-1
