Jean C. Hauser

"When I was little, I was taken up for a plane ride for the first time. The flying bug got me and I was determined to become an aviatrix." Jean Hauser needed all the determination she could muster to become "an aviatrix." Born deaf, she learned to make her way in a silent world.

Raised in the Hartford / West Bend area, Hauser graduated from the Wisconsin School for the Deaf in 1948 and went to work at Briggs and Stratton in Milwaukee.

In 1963, she began flight training at the Hartford Airport. It was after meeting West bend flight instructor Ed Emanuel that her training took off. Emanuel could converse with Hauser by signing. He later said she was one of the easiest students to teach that he had instructed.

In July, 1965, Jean passed her practical test and was informed by the examiner that she was Wisconsin's first deaf pilot. Two years later, Jean purchased a Cessna 172 flying it throughout Wisconsin and the nation. She retired from acting as PIC in 1985 after logging nearly 1,400 hours in the left seat. Wisconsin's first deaf pilot had realized her dream.

The Deaf Pilots Association tell about Jean's induction in their Spring 2009 newsletter.