JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
There is another woman representative in Washington as of today. A statue of aviator Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, was unveiled just this morning, joining the National Statuary Hall Collection inside the U.S. Capitol. NPR's Vanessa Romo has more on the famous pilot.
VANESSA ROMO, BYLINE: Amelia Earhart became a sort of 1928 aviating pop/reality star all rolled into one after becoming the first woman to complete a transatlantic flight. The public's obsession with her reached a frenzy when Earhart later made that journey on her own. Crowds would swarm her, grabbing on her iconic goggles and helmet for a tiny piece of her magic. Today's unveiling of the statue fell a little short of that type of mania, but it was joyous nonetheless.
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ROMO: The statue was one of two to represent Kansas in Statuary Hall. Each state gets a pair. And Earhart, who was born in Atchison, is the 11th woman in the collection. Kansas Governor Laura Kelly touched on what that will mean for future visitors.
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LAURA KELLY: Let it be an inspiration for all, particularly our young girls. Let them stare up at this work of art and think that they, like Amelia, can dream the impossible dream.
ROMO: In the bronze cast of the famed flyer, her hair is mussed, she's wearing a leather bomber jacket, a popped collar and a scarf around her neck. It comes just weeks after the 85th anniversary of Earhart's mysterious disappearance on a doomed voyage around the world in 1937. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi quoted from a poem about Earhart at the ceremony.
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NANCY PELOSI: She slipped the surly bonds of Earth, topped the wind, swept the heights and touched the face of God.
ROMO: Vanessa Romo, NPR News.
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