Olive Ann Mellor was born in Waverly, Kansas, USA, in 1903, the daughter of a building contractor. She had her own bank account at the age of seven and, by age 11, she was in charge of writing checks to pay the family’s bills. When the family moved to Wichita, Kansas, in 1917, Olive elected to skip high school to attend the American Secretarial and Business College.

In 1924, Olive was hired as office secretary and bookkeeper for the newly formed Travel Air Manufacturing Company. Impressed with her acumen, she was soon promoted to personal secretary of Walter Beech, one of the company’s founders. In 1929, Travel Air merged with Curtiss-Wright Corporation and Walter Beech, the new company’s president, moved to New York City. The next year, Walter and Olive married, and she, too, left Kansas for New York.

Two short years later, Olive and Walter formed Beech Aircraft Company “with the goal to build the finest airplanes in the world.” With Walter as president of the company, Olive served as secretary, working on the financial side of aircraft construction and playing a vital role in major company decisions.

Beech Aircraft Company’s first plane was the Model 17 Staggerwing. It was Olive’s idea to boost sales of the plane by sponsoring a woman pilot to fly the plane in the 1936 Bendix Trophy Race. Pilot Louise Thaden and co-pilot won the race, besting some of the nation’s best male pilots.

In 1937, Beech Aircraft introduced the Twin Beech to the market, and it was quickly adopted by the U.S. Army Air Corps, and then sold all over the world. When Walter became ill with encephalitis in 1940, Olive took over leadership of the company in the midst of retooling both the Twin Beech and the Staggerwing for military production.

World War II had broken out in Europe, causing demand for airplanes to skyrocket. Beech Aircraft planes were in especially high demand, as they were used by the Chinese to fend off the invading Japanese army, as well as by the Army Air Corps. With Walter ill in 1940, Olive sprung into action, securing US $83 million in loans to expand the plant and its operations, enabling Beech Aircraft to continue to meet and exceed military demand for planes. During the war, almost all U.S. navigators and bombardiers learned to fly Beechcraft planes. 

Walter passed away in 1950, but Olive continued to manage the company, including meeting the military’s needs yet again with the start of the Korean Conflict. She was elected Chair of the Board and President of Beech Aircraft, becoming the first woman to head a major aircraft company. Under her leadership, the company established additional manufacturing facilities, enabling Beech Aircraft to diversify its products, including missile target for the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy.

Olive led the company into the Space Age in the mid-1950s by establishing a research and development facility to produce cryogenic systems for NASA. The following decade saw Beech Aircaft develop and launch several new models, including the the low-cost “Musketeer” in 1962, which Olive’s daughter Suzanne demonstrated as a solo pilot.

In 1969, Olive announced that the company would enter into a joint venture with Hawker Siddeley Aviation of England to produce a new corporate jet. Into the 1970s, Beech Aircraft continued to innovate and deliver new, revolutionary designs in aviation, winning multimillion dollar contracts from the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, and U.S. Navy. The company also continued to provide missile targets for the U.S. Department of Defense and other tactical and training tools for the various military branches. In 1980, Beech Aircraft merged with Raytheon Company; Olive served as director of Raytheon and stayed on as chair of Beech.

When Beech Aircraft started in 1932, it employed 10 people; when Olive stepped down in 1983, the company employed over 7,800 people with annual sales of U.S. $265 million.