Axton caught the “Flying Bug” when she was only eleven years old. Her first flight was in a World War I Vintage Curtiss Jenny Bi-Plane. Axton earned her pilot’s license at the age of 21 through the Civilian Pilot Training program while teaching chemistry and Coffeyville Community College. During the Second World War, Axton was invited to join the Women’s Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs). In her time with the WASPs, she was the first woman pilot to fly a B-29 Superfortress. After the war, Axton settled in Wichita, and was often called upon by civic groups to share the story of the WASPs. She continued to fly planes into her seventies, and was one of the featured speakers at the opening of the Kansas Aviation Museum in 1991. Her family accepted the Congressional Gold Medal from President Obama in her memory in 2010.