July 19, 1963 - President Kennedy today personally congratulated pilot Betty Verret Miller, the first woman to fly alone across the Pacific. The occasion was the award to Mrs. Miller, a senior flight instructor from Santa Monica, Calif., of the Federal Aviation Agency’s decoration for exceptional service by FAA administrator Najeeb E. Halaby. Mrs. Miller took 13 daysto fly the 7,400 miles from her hometown to Brisbane, Australia, traveling the same route along which Amelia Earhart disappeared in 1937.
