(KAIR)--Famed aviator, and Atchison native, Amelia Earhart now stands in the nation’s capitol.

That follows a Congressional Statue Dedication Ceremony Wednesday morning at National Statuary Hall, in Washington D.C.

United States Senator Jerry Moran, prior to the ceremony, spoke on the U.S. Senate Floor about Earhart’s childhood, leading up to a lifetime of achievements. “Amelia Earhart, the most famous woman in aviation, soared into the history books, setting flight records and breaking barriers,” said Sen. Moran. “But before she became known worldwide as the ‘Queen of the Air,’ she was the daughter of a small town in Kansas, Atchison. She captivated the hearts and the minds of many, and inspired the next generation of pilots to love the sky in the same way she did. Undeniably, the state of Kansas has a long history steeped in the aviation industry, but without pioneers like Amelia Earhart, our state would not be the epicenter of aviation that it is today.”

Moran commended the Atchison residents who, on behalf of the Amelia Earhart Foundation, worked to see Earhart’s statue placement become a reality. “This week would not have been possible without efforts of Jacque Pregont, Karen Seaberg, Reed Berger, all with the Atchison Amelia Earhart Foundation,” Moran said.

Earhart, who replaces Kansan John James Ingalls in the statuary hall, becomes only the tenth woman to be represented among the 100 statues on display.

An identical statue to the one placed in the Capitol will also be displayed in the Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum, located at Atchison’s municipal airport named in her honor, once it opens in 2023.

Earhart each year for more than two decades, sans 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, is honored in her hometown of Atchison with a festival and concert. The festival returned earlier this month, in advance of Earhart’s 125th birthday which was commemorated July 24.

Earhart, the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, disappeared, with navigator Fred Noonan, as they flew over the central Pacific Ocean in 1937 during her attempt to become the first woman to complete a circumnavigational flight.