Mabel Boll
Toronto Daily Star, September 19 1935
(The "at right, oval" part of this caption was because the caption was off to the left of the photo in the original - I've moved it over.)
Mabel Boll (1893-1949), who started her adult life selling cigars in Rochester, New York, became a society figure in 1922 when she married her second husband, Hernando Rocha, a Colombian coffee tycoon. During their marriage, he presented her with over a million dollars worth of jewels, including a 46-carat diamond named after her. She became known as the Queen of Jewelry for her habit of wearing lots of it.
At about this time, Ms. Boll became interested in aviation, and offered a prize of 100,000 francs to any pilot who would fly her across the Atlantic Ocean. Considering that she was sometimes a temperamental passenger - she once hit a pilot with a handbag for making a premature flight in bad weather - not everyone was enthusiastic about having her on board. She did not achieve her goal: while her crew was in Newfoundland preparing for their trip, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic (strictly as a passenger on this trip). Disappointed, Ms. Boll still generously gave $500 to the Harbour Grace Airport Trust to further the cause of aviation in Newfoundland.
Ms. Boll then commissioned an aircraft named "Queen of the Air" and attempted to become a passenger in another record-setting attempt. (This aircraft is pictured in the photo above.) Unfortunately for her, the 1928 flying season ended before this attempt could be made, and the plane was eventually sold.
Ms. Boll was married to Count Henri de Porceri between 1931 and 1933, briefly becoming a countess. She made headlines again in 1934 when her boyfriend at the time shot himself on her lawn. She died of a stroke in 1949 at a psychiatric hospital on Wards Island in New York City, which suggests, sadly, that the last years of her life did not go well.
The Conception Bay Museum web site has a long article on Mabel Boll and her attempt to become the Queen of the Air. This Getty Images photograph shows her with her plane.
Created September 4, 2025.