CALIFORNIA: Jackie & the Judge

The morning sun beat down as the trim platinum blonde swung purposefully down the front walk of a luxurious ranch home in California's Coachella Valley, and, amidst a nervous flurry of hired help, stepped into a waiting air-conditioned Oldsmobile. She wheeled the Olds out past Mexican gardeners grooming the ranch-house lawn, and on the open road quickly pushed up to 80 m.p.h. In five minutes she was at the aptly named Thermal airport, where a sleek Lockheed Lodestar sat warmed up and ready for flight. She fastened herself expertly into the pilot's seat; seconds later Jacqueline Cochran Odium. 47,...

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