Pearl in flight.

TIFTON — There are many stories told about Pearl Myers, but here’s one of her grandson’s favorites.

“She was going, I think, to Atlanta,” said Tift Myers, Pearl’s grandson. “She was on 41, long before 75 [Interstate-75]. Might have been early 50s. She was going north and got stopped in Chula for speeding. She asked the cop, ‘Sonny, what’s the fine?’ He said, ‘Twenty-five dollars.’ She reached over and pulled out a fifty and said ‘I’ll be speeding when I come back through.’”

The youngest of 17 children, Pearl Willingham Myers ended up in Tifton with her husband, Irvine Walker Myers.

When he died in 1937, Pearl took on the family businesses: the Myon Hotel, a 1,000 acre farm and two tobacco warehouses.

She ran them until the mid-1960s.

When Air-Evac, an emergency helicopter transportation service, opened up in Tifton earlier this year, it held a Facebook poll to see what the name of its Tift County helicopter should be.

While there were four finalists, Pearl was the clear winner.

It was suggested first by Mike Beaumont, in recognition of her love for speed and her entreprenurial spirt.

It’s not Pearl’s first brush with fast fliers.

She passed her love of speed on to her son.

Henry Tift Myers, born in the Myon hotel in 1907, grew up to be a pilot.

After a few years with the Army Air Corps in the 1930s, Myers left the Army to work for American Airlines out of Fort Worth, Texas.

But when the United States entered into World War II, Myers was called back into service.

He ended up being the first presidential pilot, flying President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and President Harry S. Truman after him, along with a whole list of senators, congressman and foreign heads of state.

And long before the president’s plane was designated Air Force One, Henry had a hand in naming one, not knowing his own mother would indirectly name one decades later.

While Roosevelt’s plane was called Sacred Cow, when it came time for Truman’s plane to be name, Henry suggested Independence, for Truman’s birthplace of Independence, Missouri, according to “Fixing the Moon,” a biography about Henry’s life that was written by Tifton native Bonnie Davis Cella.

Independence entered operation in 1947, and Henry flew it until he decided to leave the presidential pilot position in 1948 to spend more time with his family.

“A lot of people mentioned to name the helicopter either the Sacred Cow or the Independence, but Mike Beaumont said let’s name it after Pearl,” said Tift.

The Air Evac team, which averages one flight a day, had Pearl’s own signature added to the front portion of the helicopter that bears her name.

Pearl would likely approve.

She always liked flying down the road.

Update: This story has been updated with the name of the author of “Fixing the Moon,” Tifton native Bonnie Davis Cella.