Willa Beatrice Brown was born in Glasgow, KY. In 1927 Brown earned a Bachelor's degree from Indiana State Teachers College and ten years later an MBA from Northwestern University. In 1935, after taking flight instructions, Brown earned a Masters Mechanic Certificate. 

In 1937 Brown became the first African-American woman in the US to earn a commercial pilot's license. she and her husband Cornelius Coffey found an aeronautics school, the first black-owned and operated private flight training academy in the US.

In 1941 Brown and Coffey received a contract to train many men who later became members of the famed Tuskeegee Aimen.