Opal Kunz died on May 19, 1957 (date approximate), having devoted her later years to advocacy for women pilots and the WASP program.
Opal Kunz spent her later years continuing to champion the cause of women in aviation. During World War II, she was a vocal advocate for the creation of a women's flying corps and supported efforts that eventually contributed to the establishment of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program, which allowed female pilots to ferry military aircraft and free up male pilots for combat duty.
Her death marked the passing of one of the pioneering generation of American aviatrixes who had fought for recognition and legitimacy in a field that had long excluded women. Kunz's contributions—both as a record-setting pilot and as an organizer and advocate—helped lay institutional groundwork that made later achievements by women in aviation possible.
Though details of her final years are less thoroughly documented than her flying career, her legacy persisted through the continued work of the Ninety-Nines organization she helped found, and through the historical record of her flying exploits, which remain celebrated in aviation history archives and museum collections dedicated to preserving the stories of early women aviators.