American pilot and author, the most famous hero of his day for his flight from New York to Paris on 20 May 1927 which earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor. He was an international hero and celebrity, the first “media star.” Never pursuing wealth as an end in itself, he turned down $500,000 to star in movies. He devoted himself to aviation, helping to launch TWA and Pan Am, and traveling the world developing passenger routes. The kidnapping of his first son was a dark time, and his image was tarnished from his remarks prior to World War II. He was also a Pulitzer Prize-winning author for his autobiography and an inventor.
Lindbergh was raised an only child on a farm in Little Falls, Minnesota. His father, C. A. Lindbergh, was Republican congressman for the Sixth District of Minnesota from 1907-1917. His mother was Evangeline Lodge Land, a science teacher from a prominent Detroit family. While attending the University of Wisconsin, Lindbergh became enamored of flying, and he began barnstorming, stunt-flying and performing exhibitions at County and State fairs. In late 1926, Lindbergh decided to pursue the Ortieg Prize, a $25,000 award offered to the first person to cross the Atlantic in a heavier-than-air land or water aircraft alone. Lindbergh and his plane, “The Spirit of St. Louis,” left Roosevelt Field, Long Island, at 7:52 A.M. on 20 May 1927 and landed in Paris at Le Bourget Airport, 3600 miles and 33 l/2 hours later, on 21 May 1927 at 10:22 P.M. A few days later, when he arrived at Corydon airport in London, crowds and photographers were waiting for the man who had become “The Lone Eagle” in the eyes of the world.
His second long-distance solo trip was in 1927, a 2100-mile flight from New York to Mexico City in 27 hours 10 minutes. While in Mexico City, he met Anne Spencer Morrow, the daughter of U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Dwight Morrow. The two fell deeply in love and they were married in May 1929. On 22 June 1930, the Lindbergh’s first child, Charles Jr., was born. On 2/29/1932, their baby was kidnapped from the couple’s home near Hopewell, New Jersey, sometime between 8 and 10 P.M. On 12 May 1932, the child’s body was found in a shallow grave in the woods off the Hopewell-Princeton Road. Bruno Richard Hauptmann was executed for the crime in 1936 and Congress passed the Lindbergh Law, making interstate kidnapping a federal offense.
Lindbergh plunged into medical research at the Rockefeller Institute in New York City, furthering the work of rocket science. He invented, with Nobel Prize-winner Dr. Alexis Carrel, a blood-perfusion pump to keep tissues and organs alive while being repaired.
During the 1930s, Lindbergh made various visits to Germany. He had become a leading figure in the isolationist America-First movement. Publicity and disenchantment with America drove the Lindbergh’s to seek refuge in Europe in December 1935. In June 1936, the German government invited Lindbergh to inspect their air establishments. On 18 October 1938, the No.2 Nazi, Hermann Goring, presented Lindbergh with the “Service Cross of the German Eagle.” His acceptance of the medal tarnished his image greatly in his home nation.
In 1940, Lindbergh began speaking out against U.S. involvement in WW II, but his statements were tinged with an anti-Semitism that would haunt him in later years. President Roosevelt’s criticism of Lindbergh’s public statements on 25 April 1941 brought about his resignation from the air corps reserve commission. His request to serve in a military capacity after the bombing of Pearl Harbor was denied by Roosevelt. He did serve as a civilian aircraft consultant for Ford and United Aircraft Corp, flying 50 missions against the Japanese and logging 179 combat hours. He also devised a method of conserving fuel that allowed U.S. aircraft to strike deep into enemy territory.
Lindbergh was a gifted writer. He published his autobiography, “The Spirit of St. Louis,” in 1953 and won the Pulitzer Prize. His books include ” We,” 1936 and “Of Flight and Life,” 1948.
He gradually gained back some of his former favor in the U.S. and was appointed brigadier general in the Air Force reserve by President Eisenhower in 1954.
Lindbergh lived in Darien, Connecticut with his wife, three sons and two daughters. He was a consultant and director of Pan-American Airways. For recreation, he was a skin-diver and skier.
He died of lymphoma cancer on 26 August 1974 in Maui, Hawaii.
On 29 November 2003 the media reported that DNA tests conducted by the University of Munich in October proved with 99.9 percent certainty that Dyrk and David Hesshaimer, now aged 45 and 36 respectively, and their sister Astrid Bouteuil, now aged 43, were Lindbergh’s children. The famous aviator began his romance with Munich hat-maker Brigitte Hesshaimer in 1957 when she was 32 and he was 55. They carried on their relationship in secret for over two decades and her children knew him only as “Mr. Careu Kent.” They learned his true identity much later and did not reveal it until August 2003, two years after their mother died. Lindbergh had six children with his American wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh.
Link to Wikipedia biography