Traveling the world as one of the first Black Pan Am flight attendants
CNN
In the summer of 1969, at just 20 years of age, Sheila Nutt -- a former Miss Philadelphia pageant runner-up -- was selected to be one of the first Black flight attendants on Pan American World Airways. This is her story.
(CNN) — In the summer of 1969, Sheila Nutt was one of just two Black women in a crowded Philadelphia hotel, waiting to interview for a coveted role as a flight attendant for Pan American World Airways.
Nutt was a 20-year-old college student living in Philadelphia. A couple of years previously, she was first runner-up in the Philadelphia division of the Miss America pageant.
"I was the first African American to be selected as the first runner-up," Nutt tells CNN Travel today. "Although I was not selected as the winner, I was very excited about the outcome anyway.