American pilot who flew for the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) during World War II. In October 1932, Lee had became one of the first Chinese-American women to earn a pilot’s license. She married “Clifford” Louie Yim-qun who was also a pilot.
On 10 November 1944, Lee received orders to go to the Bell Aircraft factory at Niagara Falls, New York, where she was to fly a P-63 Kingcobra aircraft to Great Falls, Montana. During the war Lee and the other Pursuit pilots delivered over 5,000 fighters to Great Falls, which was a link in supplying Soviet allies fighting the Nazi forces with planes under the Lend-Lease program. From there, male pilots flew the fighters on to Alaska, where Soviet pilots waited to fly the planes to their home bases.
Bad weather delayed the mission at Fargo, North Dakota and on the morning of 23 November the weather cleared, allowing Lee to leave Fargo. Shortly after 2 p.m., Lee was cleared to land in Great Falls with a large number of P-63s approaching the airport at the same time. There was confusion on the part of the control tower, resulting in Lee’s plane and another P-63 colliding. The aircraft were engulfed in flames and Lee was pulled from the burning wreckage of her airplane with her flight jacket still smoldering. Two days later, on 25 November 1944, Lee died from the severe burns she received in the accident. She was 32.
Thirty-eight WASP pilots died while in service during the years of World War II, and Lee was the last to die during the program. In 2010, she and all other WASP pilots, whether living, deceased, or killed during the war, received the Congressional Gold Medal.
In 2004, Hazel Ying Lee was inducted into Oregon’s Aviation Hall of Honor, a fraternity of native Oregonians who made historic contributions to aviation. Lee has since been remembered for her legacy of fighting toward equality and inclusion, her bravery, and record of service. In 2010, PBS aired a documentary about Lee, A Brief Flight: Hazel Ying Lee and The Women Who Flew Pursuit.
Link to Wikipedia biography