She was 21 years old when Eastern Air Lines recruited her as a "stewardess", a word which - like Eastern itself - has disappeared from use.

Strikes, mergers, buyouts, Nash has gone through all the somersaults of the US aviation industry. She even worked for Trump Shuttle, an airline briefly owned by current President Donald Trump in the early 1990s.

During one unforgettable approach to Washington, her plane was hit by turbulence so violent that part of a toilet separated, and it seemed as if a wing hit the ground.

"It was just terrible," Nash said, recalling lightning that "kept on coming in and I think we even flew over the White House that night, which was really illegal".

The plane had to return to New York.

Ten years ago, for her 50th anniversary on the job, her plane was welcomed on the tarmac by sprays of water from fire engines - an honor normally reserved for veteran pilots or the baptism of a new plane.

Who imagined that Nash would still be there?

"I am not going to work until I am 90," she says, before adding on the subject of retirement: "I don't want to think about it!"

Bette Nash will celebrate her 82nd birthday on Dec 31.

Agence France-presse