7 decades after Earhart's mysterious disappearance, women's aviation museum opens exhibit

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Amelia Earhart became famous in life as a pioneer for women in aviation, but the mystery of her death has helped maintain interest in her, seven decades after she disappeared at age 39 while attempting an around-the-world flight.

An Oklahoma City museum run by a women's aviation group has unveiled an exhibition that includes personal mementos of the Kansas-born Earhart to commemorate the 70th anniversary of her 1937 disappearance and the 75th anniversary of her solo flight over the Atlantic Ocean.

Among the items displayed at the Ninety-Nines Museum of Women Pilots are a bracelet of Earhart's made of elephant hide, a scarf she wore on some long-distance flights, her pilot's license and navigation charts.

''She's still a mystery,'' said Margie Richison, the chairwoman of the museum's board of trustees. ''She's probably the greatest mystery of the last century, and it's unsolved.''