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In 1929, pundit Will Rogers dubbed the first air race featuring all women pilots "The Powder Puff Derby."

He might be a little more respectful if he were around to witness this year's race, which will originate in Sweetwater in tribute to the 75th anniversary of the first graduating class of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, who trained at Sweetwater's Avenger Field during World War II.

The official name of the first race, with Amelia Earhart as one of the pilots, was the Women's Air Derby. After several interruptions, the race started up again and was renamed the Air Race Classic. This year's version will be the 42nd annual under the current name. Pilots will take off in 30-second intervals beginning at 8 a.m. Tuesday, but several community events are planned to introduce the pilots, beginning Friday.

The original race in 1929, with 20 pilots, started in Santa Monica, California, and ended in Cleveland, Ohio. This year, 121 pilots will fly in 56 teams from Sweetwater to Fryeburg, Maine, a distance of 2,656 miles.

Launching the 2018 race from Avenger Field is exciting to many of the current pilots, said Air Race Classic President Lara Gaerte, who lives in Indiana.

"It's near and dear to all of us," Gaerte said of the WASP and their history at Avenger Field. "I'm very much looking forward to it."

Current pilots understand that the WASP, who flew important missions that freed male pilots for combat duty in World War II, paved the way for today's women pilots, including military pilots. That history is so significant that many of today's women pilots have Avenger Field circled on their maps.

"For most women pilots, it's a bucket list place to go," Gaerte said.

In the two years that the WASP program existed at Sweetwater, 1,074 women graduated.

The first class of women, who started training in Houston before the program moved to Avenger Field, graduated in Sweetwater on May 28, 1943. Today, the National WASP WWII Museum is located at Avenger Field and hosts a WASP Homecoming each year over the Memorial Day weekend.

An added layer of local history is that one of the pilots in the original air race in 1929 was Vera Dawn Walker, who was born near Lawn and is buried in Cope Cemetery in south Taylor County. In February, the Ninety-Nines, an international organization of women pilots, placed a stone marker on Walker's grave, the first significant marker since her burial in 1978.

Walker was a charter member of the Ninety-Nines, which originated in 1929, just three months after the Women's Air Derby. Amelia Earhart was the first president.

The marker, which features the interlocking 99s logo, came about because of the persistence of Susan Bailey Robinson, a Chicago woman who tracked down Abilenian Barbara Fahrlender, a member of the Taylor County Historical Commission who oversees the commission's Facebook page.

When Robinson got interested in Walker's history, she contacted Fahrlender, who became fascinated with Walker's history, too.

"What drew me to the story was the fact that she was a trailblazer, a pioneer, and no one in the community knew anything about her," Fahrlender wrote in an email. "The more I researched and the more I read online, the more intrigued I was."

One of the pilots in this year's Air Race Classic is Jan McKenzie, president of the Ninety-Nines organization, which has its headquarters and museum in Oklahoma City. McKenzie said in an email that members of the eight-state South Central Section of the Ninety-Nines that includes Texas immediately jumped at the opportunity to sponsor the marker after they were contacted by Robinson.

"At the very next section meeting, I shared this information and the membership voted to pay for the headstone and engraving," McKenzie said.

McKenzie said the South Central Section will meet in Abilene in the fall 2019 and that a ceremony will be held then.

Earhart may have been the most famous pilot in the original race, but Walker had an intriguing story of her own. She was born in 1896 near Lawn and died in 1978 in Phoenix at age 82. Until this year, her grave in Cope Cemetery was barely noted. But thanks to Robinson, who conducts genealogical research for the public as a hobby from her home in Chicago, the grave is now properly marked and Walker's story is being retold.

Robinson was contacted by a person with a distant DNA match to her, asking for family research assistance. The two turned out not to be related, but while conducting research, Robinson discovered Vera Dawn Walker. She was immediately hooked. She tracked Walker's grave in Cope Cemetery through findagrave.com.

"I was disappointed to find that Vera Dawn Walker's resting place was marked only by an old metal funeral home marker," Robinson said. "I was determined to try to rectify that situation."

She even offered to pay $500 out of her own pocket to get a fund started for a marker. Besides contacting Fahrlender, Robinson also got in touch with McKenzie, president of the Ninety-Nines, who got the ball rolling to buy a stone marker.

"I felt that after she passed, Vera Dawn Walker was in danger of being forgotten," Robinson said, "although she was quite famous during her lifetime."

In fact, thanks to Robinson's persistence, findagrave.com agreed to add a "famous" designation to Walker's memorial, "something that they don't do lightly," Robinson added.

Getting involved with tracing Walker's history at this particular time, with the Air Race Classic originating at Avenger Field and with members of the Ninety-Nines involved, seemed prophetic to Robinson.

"I feel that Vera Dawn's burial location was discovered at precisely the right time, through great fortune," Robinson said.

The only two people present when the marker was placed in Cope Cemetery on Feb. 8 were the stone setter and Fahrlender, who described the emotional experience.

"It was moving when the stone was placed," Fahrlender wrote in an email. "I was in tears."

The stuff of movies

Walker's personal story is the stuff of movies. Fahrlender and Robinson undercovered numerous stories about Walker from various publications, thanks to the internet. Robinson compiled a shortened version of Walker's life for the findagrave.com page. Fahrlender added much of the research to the Taylor County Historical Commission website.

Walker was born near Lawn, to Irb B. and Elizabeth Jean Elam Walker on Feb. 3, 1896. She was raised on her family's ranch in south Taylor County. According to Robinson's and Fahrlender's research, Walker left Taylor County bound for California to seek her fortune in the movies. She worked as an extra and it was during the filming of Western star Tom Mix's "Purple Sage" that she got her first opportunity to fly. In a 1972 interview with the Arizona Republic, Walker related how a flyer was offering to take people up for a sightseeing tour while the movie was being shot. Everyone went except Mix and Walker. Mix kept pestering Walker to go up in the plane with him and she finally relented. She told the reporter how scared she was until she saw the beauty below as they flew over the Hollywood Hills.

"Before we touched the ground, I knew that I had to learn how to fly," Walker said in the interview.

She went up every day with the same pilot until the filming ended. She eventually got her pilot's license through the Aerial Corporation of California. In 1929, Walker learned of the Women's Air Derby. With sponsorship by Howard Hughes, she won the right to enter the race in a plane owned by the Curtiss-Wright Flying Service.

One of the stops on the route was Abilene, where "she received a large reception and was greeted by her father and siblings, who rushed the field," according to Robinson's research.

At 4 feet, 11 inches and 90 pounds, Walker became a media darling, Robinson discovered, and was dubbed "the world's smallest pilot." An adventurous life, which included a brief marriage and divorce, led Walker on a flight to Guatemala, where she contracted tuberculosis.

She relocated to the Tucson area, and ever the adventurer, took up panning for gold. She recovered from tuberculosis but poor health prevented her from future flying. She moved her father to Arizona and cared for him until his death. Walker is buried alongside both parents in Cope Cemetery.

It is easy to understand how Robinson and Fahrlender were captivated by Walker's story and didn't want it to remain buried in Cope Cemetery.

Fahrlender said that Walker was fearless, from her flying escapades to the determination it took to leave the family ranch in Taylor County and head west to Hollywood. Getting the marker placed on her grave may lead to future generations being intrigued and learning more about her.

"People may not know she's out there," Fahrlender wrote, "but someday, someone will come along and see that tombstone and know who she was, and she will be remembered."

If you go

What: Air Race Classic

Where: Avenger Field, Sweetwater

When: Through Tuesday

Details: The 42nd Air Race Classic is an all-women pilots event, with roots tracing to 1929. The race starts this year at Avenger Field, in recognition of the 75th anniversary of the first graduating class of Women Airforce Service Pilots, who trained there during World War II.

Schedule:

6-9 p.m. Friday — Rock the Block, free admission, Oak Street, downtown Sweetwater. Event features live music, food trucks and "meet and greet" with the pilots. Bring a lawn chair.

Noon Saturday — Youth Aviation Adventure, National WASP WWII Museum, Avenger Field, free for ages 7 to 17

5 p.m. Saturday — Bucking For Heroes, Nolan County Coliseum, $8-$15 tickets at the door. Proceeds assist veterans and their families with housing, food, counseling, education, and other basic needs. The Air Race Class pilots will be introduced.

5 p.m. Sunday — Takeoff banquet, National WASP WWII Museum, Hangar 1. Buffet-style, $50, with limited tickets at the door

8 a.m. Tuesday — Takeoff begins at 30-second intervals, Avenger Field, free, public invited

More information: waspmuseum.org; airraceclassic.org