Early Life
Willis was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, daughter of Margaret Elizabeth Porter, a nurse, and Ralph William Willis, an oil industry entrepreneur and an agriculturalist. Brother Ralph Gerald Willis (1930–1999) served in the United States Army and later retired to the Fiji Islands.
During World War II, at age 15, Willis learned to fly a single-engine propeller plane in order to qualify for the Women's Air Service. Shortly thereafter, Willis' mother, then divorced, moved to Portland, Oregon, where Willis graduated from high school. Willis studied engineering at Oregon State University from 1946-48. She graduated from the University of Hawaii in 1954 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with honors.
Read more about this topic: Beverly Willis
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