Texas aviation pioneer Wally Funk dies at 87

Catch up quick: Funk earned her pilot's license at 17 and flew every chance she got, including sneaking out of a dance to go night flying, per the New York Times.

• She tried becoming an astronaut multiple times but was rejected because women were excluded from becoming NASA astronauts.
• Still, Funk was the first female flight instructor at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, the Federal Aviation Administration's first female inspector and among the National Transportation Safety Board's first female air safety investigators.
• And, in 2021, she became the oldest woman to fly to space. The city of Grapevine celebrated her achievement with a parade.

In her words: "They say, 'Wally, you're a girl, you can't do that.' I said, 'Guess what, doesn't matter what you are, you can still do it if you want to do it,' and I like to do things that nobody's ever done before," Funk said in an Instagram video in 2021.

• Her home in Grapevine was filled with photos, medals, books and other mementos from her travels, per 360West Magazine.

The bottom line: "Wally Funk's unwavering determination proves that dreams have no expiration date ... Grapevine is honored to call Wally Funk one of our own," Grapevine City Council Member Duff O'Dell said in a statement.