Mary Alice Beatty was an early Alabama aviatrix, noted aviation writer, adventuress, and business woman. Born in Lancaster, South Carolina, she moved to Alabama in 1914. In 1923 she made her first solo flight in a WWI Curtis "Jenny" at Roberts Field, Birmingham, Alabama. She accompanied her husband on pioneer airline survey flights throughout South America, including the first crossing of the Andes Mountains by air 1932. Her record of early South American aviation has been published in book form. She is a charter member of the Alabama wing of the OX-5 Club,a nd was responsible for establishing many presigious aviation-oriented organizations. In 1966 she established at Samford University a collection of aviation artifacts which became the embryo of the Southern Museum of Flight. Her late husband, Donald C. Beatty, was inducted into the Alabama Aviation Hall of Fame in 1982.