Fay Gillis Wells, one of the first female pilots in the world and a journalist who covered the White House during four presidents’ terms, died Dec. 2 of complications from pneumonia. She was 94 and had been hospitalized for six days in Falls Church, Va.

Born in Minneapolis, one of three children, her father was a mining engineer whose career led his family to a life of travel and adventure. From childhood, Fay Gillis and her family lived in countries rarely visited by Americans at the time, including the Soviet Union.

Gillis entered Michigan State Farming University in 1927, the year Charles Lindbergh completed his first solo flight across the Atlantic. Two years later she dropped out of school and earned her pilot’s license. Lindbergh’s flight and the fame of pilot Amelia Earhart had captured Gillis’ imagination. She moved to New York City and took a job demonstrating and selling planes for Curtiss Wright Aircraft. There, she met Earhart.

In 1929, Gillis co-founded an aviators’ club for women and helped persuade Earhart to be the first president. It was called the Ninety-Nines, after the number of charter members. At the time there were 177 women pilots in the country. The club now has about 7,000 members.

After marrying and raising a son, Wells worked in the 1960s and ’70s as a journalist covering the White House. She was one of three female reporters to accompany President Nixon to China in 1972.

Later in life she promoted the International Forest of Friendship, a tree-planting project to honor the memory of aviation pioneers. Wells helped establish the project in Atchison, Kan., where Earhart was born.

Wells is survived by a son, Linton Wells II, a brother and two grandsons.