By Alexandra Skores, CNN
(CNN) — Being a stewardess always had a certain glamour for Joan Prince Crandall.
It opened doors to new experiences and gave her a chance to fly all over the world and learn new things. She remembers the days of high heels and fashion while flying – much of which is absent today.
After more than 66 years, the memory of that glamour is why she’s still flying. Her employer, Delta Air Lines, believes she is the industry’s longest serving flight attendant – the title which replaced “stewardess” decades ago.
“That has been my career – from stewardess to flight attendant,” she told CNN in an interview.
Young Prince Crandall began her career at Pacific Airlines in 1959, which flew propeller planes like the Martin 404 and the Fairchild F-27. The first plane she worked on was a Douglas DC-3, a 24-passenger aircraft.
“The airlines wanted young women who had a glamourous look,” she said.
However, as technology has evolved, so has the profession: from the early days of fashion choices like go-go boots and emphasis on service, to a job critical to the safety of commercial airlines. Flight attendants, while still dressed appropriately and serving drinks and food to fliers, are also frontline employees during aviation incidents, ushering passengers out on slides or handling other emergency situations. That part of the job hasn’t changed since Prince Crandall started, but the number of passengers she’s responsible for has.
Over the decades, the companies she’s worked for have undergone mergers and consolidation. After Pacific came Air West, then Hughes Airwest, Republic Airways, NorthWest and finally, since 2008, Delta Air Lines.
Through it all, she kept flying and is now based in Washington state. But her successful career didn’t come without some challenges along the way.
A difficult start in a male dominated world
Being a young, working woman in the late 1950s and 1960s wasn’t easy.
Prince Crandall remembers much of the earliest days of flying fondly: the fashionable uniforms, the high-class service and the emphasis on safety.
However, at the time, stewardesses were also under intense scrutiny. Some airlines had weight and appearance policies, forced them to quit if they got married and mandated they retire at age 32.
Prince Crandall said she was aware of other airlines enforcing policies about appearance, but she never ran into those problems with her employers. However, she does remember the policies about marriage and age.
“In this day and age, (the policies) would have never happened,” she said.
For many young women, according to Prince Crandall, the profession was seen as a job you do “for about two years.” But many caught the aviation bug, like she did, and fought to keep working, gain seniority and enjoy everything the job offers.
The flight attendant profession dates back to the 1930s, when the first stewardesses – many of them nurses – were hired to assist passengers. Women were selected because they provided “a source of cheap labor,” according to the Association of Professional Flight Attendants. Today, the average flight attendant salary is approximately $70,980, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
For Prince Crandall, the last sixty years have changed in many ways beyond money.
She remembers when her airline started buying new jets to replace the propeller aircraft with loud piston engines that were limited in speed, range and capacity.
“Higher, faster, smoother, more seats,” she exclaims, recalling the transition to jets with a big smile and fierce look in her eyes. She said she can still picture the new planes, feel the interior and smell the jet fuel.
“Those changes were just huge,” she said with excitement.
The other major change in the early days of her career was major legislation. She remembers vividly what the 1964 Civil Rights Act did for women, especially in her predominately female profession.
She recalls at first the bill would have only banned discrimination because of race, religion, color, or national origin, but when the words “and sex” were added, it made a huge difference.
According to the National Archives, prohibiting sex discrimination was likely only added as an amendment to keep the bill from passing, but the measure became law with the protection included.
“(The Civil Rights Act) changed life for you and me and women in the country, but it was a big change for flight attendants,” she said.
Now flight attendants – and women in other jobs across the country – could get married or have children without the fear of being fired. It would leave a pathway for future women to become flight attendants but still have lives outside of work.
Passing the torch to the next generation
After 66 years in the sky, Prince Crandall is preparing to retire and pass the torch to new flight attendants like Alise Broussard, who just graduated from Delta’s In-Flight Training Center.
The two recently met after Broussard finished her training. Prince Crandall called it a “déjà vu” moment.
On her first day, Broussard told CNN she was asked to write down why she wanted to be a flight attendant. She was still finishing her degree at Louisiana State University when she accepted the job.
“For me, the biggest part of it was the true emotional connection (with Delta employees and passengers),” Broussard said.
It’s that kind of emotional connection to the world Prince Crandall has enjoyed since the 1950s. There have been rapid advances in aviation during her career; the moon landing and the Boeing 747 came a decade after she started working as a stewardess.
“I like to think of it as being in this long silver tube, but faster, higher,” she said, as she reflected on all of the advances in technology. “It’s been an education, quite wonderful.”
But some of the most important parts of the job – like safety and connecting passengers with the world – haven’t changed.
“The job – it’s harder, it’s longer,” she said, when reflecting on what has changed overtime.
A Delta Airbus A350-900 can fit 306 passengers – nearly eight times as many as Pacific’s propeller-powered Martin 404s.
She’s often the lead flight attendant on her routes these days – called the flight purser, the senior-most worker tasked with leading the crew.
Once she retires, Prince Crandall plans to write a book and, of course, continue traveling. She enjoys visiting Paris, Mumbai and Hong Kong.
“I’ve been lucky,” Prince Crandall said. “I’m physically healthy, and it’s still fun.”
But this time, she won’t be taking drink orders or giving a safety briefing. She’ll just be exploring the world.
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