By now, the entire world has learned about the long and winding road Wally Funk took from being a young girl that had her first flying lesson at the age of 9 to becoming the oldest person to travel to space at the age of 82. However, few people are aware that historic journey included at least one, brief stop at the Jimmy Austin Regional Airport in Seminole.

Kenny Taylor, who, together with his brother, Rick Taylor and nephew, Zack Taylor, recently began leasing the airport facility, recalls a chance meeting with the celebrity at the airport approximately five years ago.

Taylor explains that he and Zack had purchased an airport “tug,” a low-profile vehicle used to move airplanes around backwards into or out of a parking space. They were transporting the tug to an airport hangar when they passed the gas pump near the runway and noticed a plane refueling with a police officer attempting to help. Aware that there had been some issues with the pump the police offer probably wouldn’t understand, they stopped to help. That’s when they discovered the pilot was Wally Funk, and she and a student pilot were returning to Texas from a trip north. After they corrected the problem and had the plane filled with fuel, they enjoyed a visit and shared their common interest in aviation.

“She told me it was still her goal to travel into space,” Taylor recalls. “That’s when she gave me her card, and I’ve hung on to it, because I knew she was going to do it. I could just tell, because she had the energy and determination, even if she was in her late 70’s at that time.”

Taylor adds that he was already familiar with Funk’s history. Long before there was a space program, she was making her own model airplanes from balsa wood when she was seven years old and took her first flying lesson at age nine. When she was in high school, she wanted to take courses such as mechanical drawing and auto mechanics, but because she was a girl, she had to take courses such as home economics instead.

Funk volunteered for the “Women in Space” program in 1961 at the age of 21, along with 13 other women training to be astronauts that were famously known as the “Mercury 13.” She excelled at the rigorous physical and mental training, but unfortunately, the Mercury program was cancelled before any of the women made it into space.

Undeterred, Funk continued chasing the elusive dream of space flight. After the Mercury program folded, she applied for the NASA program three times. Despite her impressive record, she was rejected because she didn’t have a degree in engineering (John Glenn didn’t have an engineering degree, either).

In 2012 Funk put down her own money attempting to be one of the passengers in Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic program. However, that program suffered from several delays, and she once again missed her flight.

Although he's more down to earth than Wally Funk, Taylor states that he also became interested in flying at an early age. He recalls, before his youngest brother his born, his parents taking him and his other brother, Rick, to the airport to watch the airplanes take off and land. John Howell gave the family a free ride over the town, his first ride in a plane, and he was hooked. Howell refused to charge for the ride, explaining that maybe one day one of the kids will take an interest, and he was right. Both brothers took up flying.

After working at the airport as a teenager, Kenny left to work at Tinker Air Force base until retiring in 2013. The two brothers and Rick’s son, Zack, began leasing and managing the airport in April with a vision of creating some type of events that will hopefully inspire the next generation of aviators.

Taylor admits it was an emotional experience as he watched Funk’s historic flight Tuesday morning. He was almost as thrilled as she was as he watched her dream come true within sight of where she had handed him her business card as she convinced him it was going to happen.