| Graduation Year | Class of 1960 |
| Date of Passing | Mar 14, 2020 |
| About | Obit: Daytona News-Journal March 17, 2020, Page D5 Lower Right Corner Alexis was born in the small mining town of Windber, Pennsylvania, but at a young age the family, mother, father and two sisters moved to Pompano, Florida. Alexis graduated from Pompano High School and went as one of only 9 women, that year, to Georgia Tech to earn a degree in Engineering. She worked for AT&T as a development engineer and later in human resources. Taking early retirement from that company she worked in Commercial Real Estate. Her love of flying lead her to earn a private pilot’s license at Pompano Beach Airpark. When hurricane Andrew hit Florida in 1992 she left the lower Miami area and headed for Spruce Creek Fly-in with her 4 seat, Piper Archer airplane. Enjoying flying and a short married life in that community she divorced and built her own house and busied herself with responsibilities in the “99’s,” The International Organization of Women Pilots, followed by 10 years as treasurer of the Florida wing of The Commemorative Airforce. She and a good friend, Ann Conway, were two women who relished their leadership in what was then very much a man’s world! It was in this community that she met her current husband, Tony Fortune. He, being a retired airline pilot, she felt would be a good person to help her win one of the air races organized by the Great Southern Air Race Association, of which she was an executive. Well, fourth place was the best they could do, but they had much fun trying. Alexis always enjoyed travelling, having made several trips to various destinations around the world with the 99’s, and then later with Tony. River cruises were one of their favorite forms of travel, but cruising around the Caribbean was also on their list of things to do. Alexis has one son, from a former marriage, and he followed in the footsteps of his mother’s love for flying, now being a pilot for Delta airlines. Three grandchildren are also out in the working world. It was Alzheimer’s that claimed her life, having been diagnosed with the decease in 2014. She was cared for at home for the first five years and spent her final year in The Benton House of Port Orange, where she was well looked after and seemed quite content right up to the last. |
