New bronze statue in Mineola's Station Plaza honors first U.S. woman solo flyer, LIRR dog mascot Roxey

The first American woman to ever fly solo — and the four-legged Long Island Rail Road mascot she holds aloft like the Statue of Liberty’s torch — are both honored with a tall, bronze statue in Mineola’s Station Plaza.

Bessica Medlar Raiche, depicted in her flying gear, on Sept. 16, 1910, took a number of flights in a Wright-type biplane she and her husband, Francois C. Raiche, built in their Mineola home. On her last flight that day she went around a mile from her home before the plane dived, ejecting her, though she escaped without harm as did most of the aircraft.

Roxey, the dog looks down at the world from Raiche’s hand; she holds models of his name tag — which also asks “Whose dog are you?” — and her gold, diamond-studded Aeronautical Society of America medal given to “The First Woman Aviator of America.”

Resembling, Nipper, the RCA dog cocking its head as it listens to a phonograph, Roxey was a “free-spirited pooch” who train-hopped, even traveling with President Theodore Roosevelt in his private car, according to the explanatory plaque.

Though Long Island no longer leads in aviation, Hempstead Plains is where many an early 20th-century pilot — and manufacturer began — with the industry playing an enormous role in both world wars.

That was because “the flat, open landscape made a natural airfield, close to New York,” says the Cradle of Aviation Museum.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s chief spokesman, John J. McCarthy, in a statement said all five stations linked by the Third Track “megaproject’ will have unique artworks. “This art initiative is part of the broader MTA Arts & Design, which has delivered exceptional experiences to enliven transit destinations across the region.”

He did not comment on why Thursday morning’s unveiling was canceled, though Mineola’s mayor said workers simply pulled off the statue’s covers off that morning.

“We were in the dark about the subject of the statue, the size of the statue, the placement of the statue,” said Mayor Paul Pereira. “If we had been included in the original discussion, perhaps we would have thought of a better way to represent Mineola.”

Yet he praised the way the statue may inspire people to stop and marvel at the two unconventional figures.

“It will be a conversation piece, it’ll be something people will identify with the Mineola train station, it’ll be a meeting place — ‘Hey, I’ll meet you by the statue.’ ”

The artist, Donald Lipski, is renowned for public artworks both large and unpredictable: in Manhattan, his 24-foot-high statue of a Dalmatian balancing a yellow cab on its nose stands outside the Hassenfield Children’s Hospital at NYU-Langone Medical Center, in an reversal of the new statue.

Lipski was not immediately available.

 In these early days of aviation, explained Beverly Weintraub, author of “Wings of Gold: The Story of the First Women Naval Aviators,” home-built planes were often the way to go.

“People built planes in their garages; if they were lucky, they survived the first flight,” she said.

Bessica and her husband had to take the front of their home off to get their plane out, according to Midway Village Museum in Rockford, Massachusetts.

Their plane made from silk, bamboo and piano wire was lighter than most model made from linen and iron wire, said Smithsonian curator of general aviation Dorothy Cochrane.

Bessica, a 1903 Tufts medical school graduate and a Wisconsin native, also was a dentist, a linguist, a horsewoman and an artist.

The couple opened the French-American Aeroplane Company, and built more planes before moving to California where she pursued her medical career.