November 9, 1935

Mary Frances Files Silitch, the first woman to be editor-in-chief of a national aviation magazine, was born in Little Rock (Pulaski County). A licensed pilot, she has flown 250 kinds of aircraft and logged 5,000 hours of flight. In 2006, she received the top journalism award of the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA). She is the first woman to win the NBAA Platinum Wing Lifetime Achievement Award for Journalism Excellence. On October 28, 2010, Silitch was inducted into the Arkansas Aviation Hall of Fame.