On all those shuttle flights from Washington, D.C., to Boston and back, Bette Nash got to know a lot about her regular passengers: nicknames, drink orders, and who needed help with a carry-on.
En route to becoming the longest-serving flight attendant in the world and the oldest woman to hold the job , she learned something else, too. “People want a little love,” she told the Boston Globe in 2014 . “And I don’t mean a lot of hugging and everything, even though we might do that.
But this is the big thing: People need attention.” That extra care, she added, can be offered “for free. You can give this to people for free.
” Advertisement Recognized by Guinness World Records for her longevity in the sky and honored by American Airlines for decades of dedication, Ms. Nash died May 17. ABC News reported that she had been in hospice care after a breast cancer diagnosis.
She was 88 and still an American Airlines employee, the company told the Associated Press . With the seniority of flying for 67 years — longer than many flight attendant colleagues had been alive — she had her pick of assignments and chose East Coast shuttles, such as Washington to Boston, so she could be home in Manassas, Va., each night with her son, Christian, who was born with Down syndrome.
That made Boston, and Logan International Airport in particular, a second home of sorts for years, a place Ms. Nash visited more times than most air travelers. Continuing to work into her 80s, she said she coul.
