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Two daring Chinese American women took to Portland’s skies to escape earthbound 20th-century limits, secured lasting legacies
Updated 8:05 AM;
Today 7:04 AM
Hazel Ying Lee (second from right) was a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots during World War II. (National Museum of the United States Air Force)
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Two of Portland’s airborne pioneers, however, mostly flew under the radar.
Leah Hing began taking flying lessons in 1932 when she was 24. By then, the Washington High School grad already had crisscrossed the United States by train as a saxophonist with a six-member band variously called Portland Chinese Girls’ Band, Chinese Show Boat and Honorable Wu’s Vaudeville Troupe. She had started the band as a means of getting out of Portland and seeing the wider world. The band’s signature number was “Happy Days Are Here Again.”