After more than six decades in the skies, Delta Air Lines’ most senior flight attendant, Joan Prince Crandall, is preparing to retire, closing the chapter on one of the most remarkable cabin crew careers in aviation history.
When Joan Prince Crandall first stepped onboard an aircraft as a “stewardess” in 1959, the aviation industry was almost unrecognisable compared with the world of flying we know today.
Aircraft were smaller, flights were slower, passengers dressed up to travel, and the onboard crews were expected to be part safety professional, part hostess and part glamour icon.
More than 66 years later, Prince Crandall has witnessed almost every major change in modern commercial aviation – from propeller aircraft to wide-bodied jets, from rigid “stewardess” rules to today’s safety-led culture.
A Living Piece Of Aviation History
Now Seattle-based and still flying for Delta Air Lines, Prince Crandall is touted by the airline as being the longest-serving flight attendant in commercial aviation.
“I have been part of aviation since the day that I was born,” Prince Crandall explained in an interview with Delta for International Flight Attendant/Cabin Crew Day. Her father was a pilot for Northwest Airlines, and she was her mother’s first passenger during her Private Pilot Licence flying lessons. Prince Crandall’s career, meanwhile, began with Pacific Airlines in 1959, initially flying small 24-seat Douglas DC-3s. “Being a stewardess in that period was thought of as a very glamorous, exciting job, so I wanted to do it,” she explained.
Over the decades, she would serve passengers through a long chain of airline mergers and rebrands, working for Pacific, Air West, Hughes Airwest, Republic Airways, Northwest Airlines and, from 2008, Delta.
It is a career that reads like a living history of American aviation.
And her changing airline uniforms have also matched her changing favourite destination: “I used to think it was Paris. Paris is fabulous, of course. But now I’ve been to so many other places, and it’s hard to replace Mumbai, London, Tokyo, or Beijing. So it’s hard to say. It’s changed over time.”
The Restrictive “Stewardess” Era
When Prince Crandall joined the industry, female flight attendants, then widely referred to as stewardesses, were often hired as much for their appearance as for their ability to do the job. Airlines wanted young, polished, glamorous women, and the rules governing their working lives were astonishingly restrictive by today’s standards. “The airlines wanted young women who had a glamorous look,” she told CNN in an interview.
In interviews with various media outlets marking her retirement, Prince Crandall recalled an era when some female crew members were expected to remain unmarried and could be forced out of their jobs if they had children. In some cases, airlines also imposed strict age and appearance policies, with women required to leave the profession in their early thirties.
Looking back, Prince Crandall said such policies would be unthinkable today. But at the time, many young women saw flying as something they might do for only a couple of years before marriage or another career path ended it.
That changed dramatically in the 1960s, particularly after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which helped break down barriers for women in aviation and beyond, enabling them to challenge discriminatory rules.
For flight attendants, it marked a major turning point. The job slowly began to move away from its old image of youth, glamour and strict femininity, and towards the professional, safety-critical career it is today.
“(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.
Generations Of Cabin Crew
Her first aircraft, the Douglas DC-3, carried just two dozen passengers. Today, the airline’s Airbus A350s can accommodate over 300.
In between, she witnessed the arrival of jet travel, deregulation, the decline of smoking on board, the rise of mass air travel, new safety and security procedures, changing service styles, and a very different relationship between crew and passengers.
“The job – it’s harder, it’s longer,” she said. Yet despite all that change, Joan says the heart of the job has remained the same: safety. “The most important part of our job is safety. We are the first, first responders.”
On International Cabin Crew/Flight Attendant Day, Delta celebrated Prince Crandall’s incredible career by pairing her with one of the airline’s newest recruits, New York-based Alise Broussard. The contrast was powerful: one woman just beginning her flying life, and another preparing to close a career spanning nearly seven decades.
Her advice to Broussard was simple: “Take care of yourself. It’s long hours. Get enough sleep. Being a flight attendant now and in your future, being a purser, be that person for the whole aeroplane. Always think it’s all of the aircraft.”
For Delta, the moment was not simply about longevity, but about the generations of crew connected by the same purpose. The airline described its flight attendants as central to safety, service and the customer experience, while Joan’s story showed just how far the profession has come.
When asked what her favourite flight was, Prince Crandall explained: “I flew a military flight. We flew out to Frankfurt. We got out to the airport about midnight, and we were about to pick up 220 refugees from Afghanistan who were leaving their country forever to come to the United States to be safe”
Hanging Up Her Wings
Even after almost seven decades in the air, Prince Crandall still talks about her role with deep affection. “Seeing the world opens up your mind to new things. To new people,” she enthused. “But I’m still fascinated about flying. About being in the air. About the clouds. The beauty of it all. Who gets to do that? We get to do it. So it’s remarkable.”
And even after retirement, Prince Crandall plans to keep travelling, though this time as a passenger. She has also spoken about writing a book and returning to favourite destinations, including Paris, Mumbai and Hong Kong.
For the next generation of flight attendants, her legacy is extraordinary. Joan Prince Crandall did not just watch the industry change — she was part of that change. From the glamorous but restrictive stewardess era of the 1950s to the modern cabin crew profession today, her career tells the story of aviation’s social progress, resilience, and enduring magic.
After 67 years in the skies, Joan Prince Crandall may finally be preparing to hang up her wings.
But what a flight it has been.
© Confessions of a Trolley Dolly