Actor and historian Leslie Goddard will be portraying Amelia Earhart at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Lockard Room at the Airport Steakhouse in Mattoon.

Goddard is an award-winning actress and scholar who has been presenting history lectures and portraying famous women in history for more than 10 years.

She has a doctorate degree from Northwestern University specializing in American studies and U.S. history.  She also has master’s degrees in theater and in museum studies.

Goddard is a former museum director and is the author of two books on Chicago history.  She currently works full-time as a historical interpreter, author and public speaker.

For her Amelia Earhart portrayal, she will be discussing Earhart’s achievements, which include becoming the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by airplane and the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.  She will talk about Earhart’s personal life as well such has her different view on what marriage was back in the early 1900s.

She has portrayed other women of history, such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Bette Davis and Jacqueline Kennedy.

Stephanie White can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].