On May 31st 2007, Arlene Walsh was killed in a car accident in a remote area of northeast New Mexico. She was 71-years-old. At the time of her death, she had been a semi-retired kindergarten teacher, student pilot, and the president of her local chapter of the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association). She had also helped found a local chapter of the Ninety-Nines, the International Organization of Woman Pilots in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she lived. She left behind three grown children, four grandchildren, two cats, two pet snakes, and a half-built biplane that had been under construction bit-by-bit for years. She also left behind a manuscript for a book on which she had been working, The Sky's The Limit, about being an older woman fulfilling her dream of learning to fly. The Sky's The Limit was not only incomplete but also in very rough draft form. It was not the only manuscript that Arlene left behind either. Arlene's Book is a compilation of the The Sky's The limit with two earlier, more complete manuscripts that she wrote about different parts of her life. Pot Roast on the Ceiling is a series of remembrances of her girlhood in Connecticut, and Door to the Rainbow chronicles one year of her life teaching in a one-room schoolhouse in rural New Mexico. Together, these three manuscripts form a memoir of an independently-minded, talented woman who passionately followed her dreams.
