At Age 70, Flight Attendant Checks In Her Wings

SEATTLE —  A woman believed to be the nation’s oldest flight attendant has retired at age 70 after logging nearly 4 1/2 years in the air during a career that began in 1948.

“I had to have a goal for something, and I figured it might as well be old,” Connie Walker said Tuesday after she stepped off a Northwest Airlines flight from Seoul.

She said her feelings were torn.

“The body is ready to quit, and the heart wants to keep going,” she said.

Three dozen friends and co-workers greeted her at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport with flowers, balloons, hugs and a chorus of “For She’s a Jolly Good Lady.”

Among the well-wishers was Denise Flanagan, whom Walker helped deliver on a flight to Anchorage 36 years ago. Northwest flew Flanagan from her home in Ludlow, Mass., and her mother from Akron, Ohio, to help Walker celebrate her retirement.

They have remained in touch, and Walker, who never married, calls Flanagan her daughter.

Walker started at age 28 in 1948, flying between Portland, Ore., and Billings, Mont. Her total mileage is the equivalent of about 700 trips around the Earth.

Walker said her next trip will be a vacation cruise “so I don’t have to go in and out of an airport and stand in line.”

She plans a flight to Norway in December but said sitting down will be a new experience.

“Like an old warhorse, you want to get up and help,” she said.