JEAN BATTEN Our queen of the skies
In the mid-1930s, Jean Batten become the most famous Kiwi in the world, acclaimed for her record-breaking solo plane flights. A school in Mangere, Auckland, an airport terminal, mountain peak and numerous streets were named after the glamorous aviatrix, who made the first-ever solo flight from England to Australia.
But it wasn’t long before she shunned the spotlight, earning the nickname “the Garbo of the Skies” for becoming reclusive as well as for her striking looks.
And when she died of complications from a dog bite in Spain in 1982, she was living in
