It was 30 years ago Wednesday that Delta Air Lines soared over the Atlantic, bound for its first overseas flight.

One of the young flight attendants greeting passengers traveling to London's Gatwick Airport that day was a Memphis native who made metro Atlanta home and Delta her family. Kay Carpenter signed up with Delta within days of graduating from college. Although it was common practice for stewardesses, as they were then known, to work for just a few years, Carpenter took to the skies and never left.

Courtesy of Kay Carpenter (ENLARGE)

This photo of flight attendant Kay Carpenter was snapped soon after she joined Delta in 1966, after signing an agreement to quit at 32 or when she got married.

JENNIFER BRETT / AJC (ENLARGE)

Flight attendant Kay Carpenter (above) stands in the galley of the plane she boarded Wednesday, bound for Japan.

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"I was going to come over here and fly for six months, get married and then quit," she said. After her fiancé was killed in Vietnam, Carpenter decided to stay with Delta.

"It's a wonderful company to work for," said Carpenter, who counts the close friendships she's formed over the years as the best part of working there.

In her off time, she is active in her church, Holy Cross Catholic, and her ladies luncheon group. Before flights, she introduces herself to passengers. We caught up with the gracious Carpenter on the morning of Delta's 30 intercontinental anniversary to ask about all she'd seen at 30,000 feet during her tenure aloft. She was — where else? — boarding a flight to Tokyo.

Q: How'd you get the idea to become a flight attendant?

A: I graduated from LSU on a Wednesday [in January 1966] with a business degree. I came to work for Delta the following Monday. I've been here ever since. Back then, they made you sign an agreement to quit at 32 or when you got married, whichever came first. I still have the agreement.

Q: What's different about air travel today?

A: People really dressed up to fly. People are in a hurry today. People have more pressures on them.

Q: How were the in-flight meals back then?

A: The food was phenomenal. We used to carve meat [tray-tableside]. You had a choice of four appetizers, hot or cold soup. We had beef Wellington, chateaubriand, Baked Alaska. We would burn the top [rather than serve the dessert aflame]. But the food today is wonderful, too.

Q: What did passengers do for entertainment before personal DVD players and iPods?

A: We showed a movie — somebody brought these huge reels in — or people read or slept. They entertained themselves.

Q: Did you ever have any scary moments?

A: I had to evacuate an airplane once, in 1975. The nose gear collapsed.

Q: Ever have any celebs in your cabin?

A: We've had Sean Connery, Natalie Cole, Chaka Khan, Chris Tucker, Andy Young, Gov. Sonny Perdue, [former Gov.] Joe Frank Harris and Elizabeth. Elizabeth Harris is a delightful woman.

Q: Any memorable exchanges with one of those folks?

A: I don't really bother people. I respect their privacy. I had Bill and Hillary Clinton in 1985. He was the governor of Arkansas. I was the only one who knew who he was.

Q: Did he hit on you?

A: [Demur laughter.]