Bessie is a diminutive of Elizabeth — from the Hebrew *Elisheba* ("my God is my oath"). **A top-15 US baby name from 1880 to 1900**. **Bessie Coleman (1892-1926)** — daughter of Texas sharecroppers; **the first African American woman and first Native American woman to earn an international pilot's license** (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, 1921). **Refused to perform at any airshow that barred Black spectators**. Died at 34 when her plane malfunctioned in Jacksonville, Florida. **Bessie Smith (1894-1937)** — "Empress of the Blues"; **the highest-paid Black American entertainer of the 1920s**; died after a car accident on Mississippi's Highway 61.
Subject of Doris Rich's *Queen Bess: Daredevil Aviator* (1996).
Bessie reduces to nine — the number of pilot pioneer.