An Easton woman who flew with Amelia Earhart in her youth ago has died.

Ask anyone in Easton about Anne Fiyalka, and they'll tell you she was full of life.

"She always had a smile on her face, always had something nice to say to you," says Randy Shapiro, with the Easton Senior Center.

"She's a local Easton celebrity," says Jonathan Arnold with Easton EMS.

Fiyalka died Sunday at the age of 103. She loved to tell her story about Amelia Earhart.

On Nov. 5, 1936, Fiyalka was an underclassman at Harding High School in Bridgeport. Amelia Earhart came to her school to talk to the girls assembly.

Fiyalka was picked to go up in a plane with Earhart. It was a short flight over Stratford, but it's a trip that always stuck with Fiyalka - as she told News 12 Connecticut in 2022.

"Three honors students were chosen to go with her in her airplane over the Stratford airport, and how fortunate was I that I was one of them," said Fiyalka.

"She's telling me firsthand how she lived it, and I thought that's as close as I'm going to get to Amelia Earhart, and how amazing it is to have that person living in Easton," says Arnold.

But Fiyalka is known in town for much more. The aviation buff helped get the Easton Senior Center off the ground and worked at the polls every Election Day.

In June 2022, her wish to go back up in a plane 85 years after her flight with Earhart was granted. She and her flight instructor Nicole Marsillio took off for the ride of a lifetime in Stratford, proving age is no obstacle when you have determination and heart.

"I'm definitely going to miss her. I'm sure they're going to do something to honor her memory," says Arnold.

Easton First Selectman David Bindelglass says Fiyalka was sharp as a tack. Her funeral services are this Friday at 11 a.m. at Notre Dame Church.