Bette Nash, the longest-serving flight attendant in the world, died on May 17 at the age of 88.
Her death was confirmed by American Airlines, which called her “a legend at American and throughout the industry, inspiring generations of flight attendants.”
After first working as a legal secretary, she was hired by the now-defunct Eastern Airlines in 1957 and attended the airline’s charm school Her work as a stewardess began in 1958 and she transferred to the airline’s Washington, D.C. base in 1961 so she could work on Eastern Air Lines Shuttle routes linking D.C. to both New York and Boston. This enabled her to return home each evening to care for her son, who has Down’s Syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
“Coffee, tea, hot chocolate, or bouillon?” she would ask, wearing long white gloves and a blue pillbox hat, offering passengers a choice of two flavors of the bouillon, chicken or beef.
The Eastern Air Lines Shuttle was sold to Donald Trump as part of the airline’s bankruptcy filing and she continued to work on the Trump Shuttle on the same routes. When Trump ceded control of the Shuttle to avoid bankruptcy in 1990, the airline quickly ran out of cash and defaulted on its debt, resulting in its having a third owner, USAir, and Ms. Nash continued working the same trips on the USAir Shuttle, later known as the US Airways Shuttle. Her fourth and final employer was American Airways, which merged with US Airways in 2013 and continued the shuttle operation.
Fifty years after her first flight, US Airways honored her in a ceremony at Reagan National Airport in November 2007. The airline threw a party, presented her with a golden anniversary pin, and, upon landing at Reagan National that day, gave her a rare “water-cannon salute.” Typically reserved for retiring pilots, as her flight from New York’s La Guardia International Airport pulled up to a gate, a pair of firetrucks sent streams of water over the aircraft.
Ms. Nash, who was 71 at the time, told reporters at the time that she had no plans to retire.
The party the airline threw was a one-of-a-kind event, given the rarity of employees in the air with that level of tenure.
As the aircraft she was on – deadheading because her original flight had been cancelled – taxeid to the gate at Reagan National, the captain told passengers on the PA about Ms. Nash’s career and issued the standard warning about a water cannon salute from the fire trucks, lest they panic and assume the aircraft was on fire.
Passengers and crewmembers gave Ms. Nash a standing ovation and she exited the jetway to more applause as she walked into the terminal. She was greeted by a co-worker in black tie who led her down a trail of rose petals to the crew lounge, where a band comprised of US Airlines employees played “Fly Bette Fly” to the tune of “Ride Sally Ride.” Co-workers from every stage of her career were present at the event as well.
Co-workers from every stage of Nash’s career were there, with gifts and plenty of wild stories about a bygone era of air travel. A strict social code ruled the skies when Nash started: Stewardesses weren’t allowed to marry or have children. The rule led to every manner of furtive trysts and secret romances, she recalled.
Ten years later, American Airlines celebrated her diamond jubilee as an employee and presented her with a pair of diamond earrings, while donating $10,000 to a food bank she regularly supported.
In 2018, to celebrate its revamped shuttle service, American asked Ms. Nash to greet some of the shuttle’s first passengers in Chicago. Nash was just 81 at the time.
Ms. Nash said she had wanted to be a stewardess since high school.
In an interview with CNN, she said she had “wanted to be a flight attendant from the time I got on the first airplane – I was 16 years old, I was sitting with my mother on a green leather couch at Washington [Reagan National Airport], and this crew came up from TWA.”
“The pilot and the flight attendant walked across the hall and I thought ‘Oh my God,’ and I said ‘that was for me.’”
Ms. Nash, who held the Guinness World Record for longest-serving flight attendant never officially retired and was still an American Airlines flight attendant when she died. She recently had entered hospice care after being diagnosed with breast cancer.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
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