Rosa Martha Rossi aka Myriam Stefford (b. October 30, 1905 in Bern, Switzerland; † August 26, 1931 in Marayes San Juan, Argentina) was one of the first women to learn to fly in Argentina. She crashed on a stage flight to the 14 provincial capitals at the time. In Argentina, she is considered a pioneer of flight. She was engaged to the Argentine millionaire and bohemian Raúl Barón Biza. Myriam Stefford was born in Bern as the first child of the carriage dealer Antonio Rossi from Arzo (TI) and Rosa Emma Hofmann from Bern. On December 3, 1905, she was baptized in the Catholic Church of the Holy Trinity with the name Rosa Martha Rossi. Two years later, her sister Julie Clara was born. Little is known about Myriam Stefford's childhood and school years. Her father was a representative of the Zurich carriage-building company C. & R. Geissberger, which also began manufacturing automobile bodies at this time. He was also involved in social life as an active gymnast and judge. The family moved several times within the city of Bern. Myriam Stefford was deregistered in Bern on August 21, 1924, with the remark "Passport to daughter Rosa Martha for one year to Paris." At the time, she was still a minor at the age of 18. She must therefore have received the passport with the permission of her parents. With what destination Rosa Rossi alias Myriam Stefford left for Paris is unknown. Only two months later, on November 4, 1924, her parents moved to Ticino with her younger sister. The New York Times wrote that Myriam Stefford played a leading role in the 1928 silent film Moulin Rouge, which is demonstrably false. Not only because the leading roles in the film were cast differently, but also because Rosa M. Rossi arrived in Buenos Aires on October 18, 1928, and was registered there by the immigration authorities as single with the occupation Labores. Rosa Rossi came to Argentina with her fiancé, the politician and author Raúl Barón Biza (1899-1964), a millionaire and bon vivant. When and where she met him is not known. But he portrayed her as early as 1926 in the cultural and gossip magazine he edited, "Charleston." There he staged her for the first time as the aspiring film star Myriam Stefford. In Argentina, where she lived with him, and on their trips to Europe together, newspaper accounts described her as a famous actress and Austrian baroness. In 1930 the couple staged their wedding. With a telegram to the New York Times, they announced their marriage plans on May 2, 1930. And on September 27, 1930, the Spanish newspaper La Razón, based on a telegram, announced the couple's wedding in Venice. In fact, Myriam Stefford and Raúl Barón Biza were in Venice. But this wedding probably never took place. For when Barón Biza arrived back in Argentina in February 1931, he was described as "single" on the entry documents. Rosa M. Rossi was also described as "single" in the 1931 flight accident report. Back in Argentina, Myriam Stefford discovered flying. Her fiancé gave her a small plane and she took flying lessons. Just three weeks after receiving her pilot's license, she embarked on a multi-day stage flight to the provincial capitals of Argentina on August 18, 1931. It was supposed to be the preparation to become the first woman to fly from Buenos Aires to North America afterwards. Myriam Stefford was accompanied on the flight by her flight instructor Ludwig Wilhelm Fuchs. On August 26, 1931, the plane crashed shortly after takeoff in Marayes in the province of San Juan. Myriam Stefford and her flight instructor were killed in the accident. A few years later, Raúl Barón Biza had a mausoleum built for Myriam Stefford by the architect Fausto Newton. The monument in Alta Gracia is in the shape of an airplane wing and, at 82 meters, is one of the tallest monuments in Argentina.
Rosa Martha Rossi alias Myriam Stefford
