Finding Amelia Earhart

Denver’s 9News traffic reporter and golf enthusiast

Jon Rizzi

Named for her legendary aviatrix ancestor, the KUSA reporter goes full throttle on everything–whether that’s delivering traffic news, outdriving guys off the tee or flying around the world.

When 17-year-old Amelia Earhart decided to spend the summer with her father, Glen, at his new home in southern Colorado, she could never have imagined the impact Pagosa Springs Golf Club would have on her life.

After all, growing up in eastern Kansas, the future newscaster—whose up-to-the-second traffic and weather reports on Colorado’s top-rated 9News This Morning get Denver to work on time—had never set foot on a golf course: Not in Tonganoxie, where she’d lived mainly with her mother, Debborah, since the age of 13; nor in nearby Atchison, the birthplace of her distant ancestor, the world-famous aviator Amelia Earhart, who disappeared near Fiji in 1937 as she attempted to circumnavigate the world.

Amelia’s first and last names were the same as her forebear’s. “My mom said, ‘We have to name her Amelia. It’s a name nobody will ever forget,’” Earhart recounts—although for “a long time I tried to ignore any significance behind it.” She instead went by Amy. (Ask anyone with the same name as a famous person—remember “Michael Bolton” in Office Space?—and you can understand why.)

Still, her parents raised her to exemplify the spirit of her influential namesake, to experience life, push forward and not accept any limitations. “When I was growing up, my mother and I would have real conversations about what I could do when I got older,” she says. “I began to recognize the benefit of carrying that name.”

“Amy” was the name she used when she applied for a job at the club in 2000. Glen, a farrier by trade, had suggested she apply there. “He wanted me to get exercise, to be outside,” she says. “I think he was thinking cart girl or something in the pro shop but those jobs were taken. Then the golf pro looked at me—and I’m, you know, pretty girly—and said, ‘I don’t know if this is your style, but they’re hiring in the maintenance shop.’”

So began a summer of starting work at 5:30 a.m. and staying ahead of the golfers as she raked bunkers, mowed tees, fairways and greens and placed cups. “It was a really solitary and peaceful job,” she says. “You can’t hear anybody when you’re on the mower. I got a great tan, was in great shape, always on the go listening to Books on Tape.” 

“She wasn’t timid about operating the machines,” remembers Course Superintendent Terry Carter, who says she, like many other “young ladies” have always been the most attentive operators of the TriFlex mowers, which can quickly scalp the turf if they’re not picked up right. “She was always friendly and eager to do anything. She took a lot of pride in making the course look good.”

Amelia got to reap the benefits of her hard work in the afternoons, when the staff could play the course for free. A member gave her an old mismatched set of clubs (including two drivers) and “because of the way I was raised, I assumed I would be good at it, even though I’d heard it was hard and, to be honest, I’m kind of a klutz.”

She took to it quickly, her height, posture, flexibility and long arms creating a powerful swing arc and long drives. “Because I played with the boys on the staff, I got in the habit of playing from the men’s tees,” she says. “I still do. It gives them a challenge. I’m not a competitive golfer or an angry golfer, but when I outdrive some of the guys, it becomes more playful. I’m just a goofball, really.”

She’s a confident goofball, however, and that confidence blossomed that summer. She’s literally played hundreds of rounds at Pagosa, and has broken 100 numerous times, though she’s never carried an official handicap. “I love hitting driver-8-iron-putter because I hate using my irons,” she says. Playing the forward tees instead of the back ones might give her that option, but it might not be as social. “To this day, I’ll play with anyone out there. We’ll have a good conversation and a good time.”

After graduating from Tonganoxie High School and while at the University of Colorado, she continued to work summers at the course in Pagosa. During the school year, she held a job at Coal Creek Golf Course in Louisville, working the pro shop with PGA Professional Keith Soriano, who remembers how far “Amy” could hit the ball with “really old clubs.” More than 10 years later, she still trots out those sticks at charity golf tournaments and rounds with friends at Cherry Hills.

In addition to Coal Creek, she also held jobs on campus and as a server at the now-defunct Dolan’s Restaurant on Arapahoe Avenue—primarily to afford flying lessons. “When people would hear my name they’d ask if I was a pilot, and I was so sick of saying no,” she explains. “I always had a sense of adventure and felt an sense of obligation to do it and it turned out I really loved it. It was a huge confidence builder. I don’t think my parents had any idea of what it would lead to.”

At Dolan’s one evening, she animatedly related her story to a couple she regularly waited on—“they always ordered lobster”— and got a quizzical look. “The woman was dean of students and she passed the information to the campus press. The next thing you know, I’m a cute little human interest story on Fox News and on shows around the country.”

In 2004, a year before she graduated, KOA came calling an offered her a job doing traffic from a helicopter. KOA shared the reporting with 9News. “I never in a million years thought about working in news,” she admits. “I always wanted to be a high school English teacher, to introduce kids to books that would change their lives and force them to see the world in a different way.”

Amelia was seeing the world in a different way—from the SKY9 chopper and from the cockpit of the planes she was learning to fly. In 2009, she left 9News to report traffic on KCBS and KCAL-TV in Los Angeles. She took a second job at Angeles National Golf Club, primarily to play free golf, and she also earned her pilot’s license, getting certified under Visual Flight Rules.

Meanwhile, back in Denver, 9News was looking for a morning traffic reporter. “We kept thinking we need someone who could do it like Amelia,” remembers KUSA President and General Manager Mark Cornetta. “We were ready to hire someone else, and I’ll never forget asking News Director Patti Dennis, ‘Are we sure Amelia isn’t interested?’ Let’s call her and make absolutely certain.”

They’re glad they did. Amelia returned to Denver April 12, 2010, as part of the 9News Morning Show.  “She hit the ground running,” Cornetta says. “She has a great attitude, is an expert on traffic, is getting a degree in meteorology and is willing to put the time and effort into everything she does.”

Meteorologist Becky Ditchfield echoes Cornetta’s sentiments. “Amelia’s such an adventurous and positive person,” she says. “Her enthusiasm is genuine. The upbeat person you see on TV is the person she is. I haven’t had the opportunity to fly with her—or to golf with her—but whatever she does, including throwing my bachelorette party, she commits herself to.”

After going to sleep at 9 p.m., Amelia rises at 2:30 a.m. and arrives at work an hour later. At 4:30, she co-anchors 9News First with Gregg Moss and then from 5 to 9, reports on breaking news, weather and traffic to get you to work on time. She does the noon broadcast as well.  Who knew those up-before-dawn summers in Pagosa would be such good training?

And when she flies, the self-reliant peace and solitude recall mornings on the mower, and when she provides traffic news, it’s like the commuters are golfers for whom she’s prepping the course. And golf course maintenance workers, pilots and meteorologists all need to respect the weather.

What Amelia loves about flying is “taking control of a situation. I’m responsible for saving my own life. When you take off you have to land. You can’t be unprepared. Flying forces me to be completely single-minded. I’m so focused. The door closes and I’m all instruments, radio. I’m pretty impressed with myself when I’m up there. I’m hyper-focused. I have to know what I’m doing. It’s a lot of responsibility. It feels good to have mastered something like that. To be a safe pilot.”

Amelia’s respect for the woman whose name she carries is a healthy one. “Having this name has been an amazing gift,” the girl formerly known as Amy says now. Flying a Cirrus SR 22, she last year recreated Amelia Earhart’s 1937 transcontinental flight from Oakland to Miami as part of her instrument training hours. “We tracked the tail number of the plane and had her updating us,” says Cornetta. “It was incredibly popular.”

The popularity and historical significance of that flight will pale in comparison to Amelia’s intention next summer to retrace her ancestor’s trip around the world in a single-engine aircraft. She’ll have a co-pilot. If she completes the flight, she’ll be the youngest woman, at age 31, to accomplish the feat.

A pilot himself, Cornetta admits to having a “healthy nervousness” about his high-flying employee’s plan, but he believes her meteorological training is unique among pilots. “Knowing the weather, forecasting, all those things are invaluable to a pilot,” he says. “In the Rockies the weather can change in an instant.”

Which is why Amelia will have her Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) rating well in advance of her historic flight. She was supposed to take her final exam in May “but thunderstorms keep delaying us,” she texts. Embracing what the first Amelia Earhart represented, Amelia has involved herself heavily in the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum and has recently become a member of its board of directors. “She’s a great example of someone whose passion for flight has raised her game in all areas of life,” says the museum’s CEO Greg Anderson. “She’s a great community figure, a great news reporter, a great human being and a great pilot.”

Anderson relishes the way Amelia transcends generations and serves as a wonderful role model for young women. “She’s our ambassador to youth,” he says of the erstwhile English teacher. “She loves to inform and educate and inspire high standards. The rewards are great when you can share that kind of enthusiasm.

“We’re not trying to make pilots out of everybody,” he continues. “We believe in the importance of teaching kids to reach for the skies so they can explore new horizons.” It’s a given that Wings Over the Rockies will support Amelia’s world flight next year.

The flight will promote the future of aviation, which Amelia believes must feature more women pilots than just the current 7 percent. Two months ago, she founded the Fly With Amelia Foundation, which puts girls between the ages of 16 and 18 through flight school if their parents can’t afford it. “It’s not just about flying,” she explains. “The idea is to have them make decisions based around responsibility and planning, to grow confidence in a different way.”

Substitute the word “golf” for “flying” in the above quotation and you have the kernel of a mission statement for a youth golf program. The two activities are not dissimilar.

“I don’t find it surprising that Amelia’s a golfer,” says Anderson. “Like aviation, it’s the sort of avocation that brings out the best in people and gives them goals to shoot for. It offers a continual sense of recreation and hope for improvement.”

And for Amelia, golf also offers a sense of humility. As high as she flies, she still stays grounded, thanks to her days working course maintenance. “Today, when I play golf, it’s usually a fancy-pants kind of day, but I can’t play a course without talking to the maintenance staff,” she says. “That job gave me a true appreciation for people who bust their butts so we can enjoy ourselves. I was the girl in the baseball cap sitting on the mower.”

For more information on Earhart’s foundation, visit flywithamelia.com or wingsmuseum.org.

Colorado AvidGolfer is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it. It publishes eight issues annually and proudly delivers daily content via www.coloradoavidgolfer.com. Jon Rizzi is the founding editor and co-owner of this regional golf-related media company producing magazines, web content, tournaments, events and the Golf Passport.