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Annie Glenn
- Annie Glenn, an advocate on communication disorders and the widow of astronaut and U.S. Sen. John Glenn, died of complications from COVID-19.
www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/annie-glenn-wife-late-astronaut-u-s-sen-john-glenn-n1210371Annie Glenn, wife of late astronaut and U.S. Sen. John Glenn ...
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John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was an American Marine Corps aviator, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the third American in space and the first American to orbit the Earth, circling it three times in 1962. [3]
Dec 8, 2016 · And quite a life it was that ended today, when John Herschel Glenn Jr. died, at 95, in Columbus, Ohio. Toward the beginning of his near-century on this earth (and, sometimes, beyond it), he...
- City Editor, New York Magazine
Dec 8, 2016 · Explore genealogy for John Glenn Jr born 1921 Cambridge, Guernsey, Ohio, United States died 2016 Columbus, Franklin, Ohio, United States including ancestors + 5 photos + 9 genealogist comments + questions + more in the free family tree community.
- Male
- July 18, 1921
- Anna Margaret (Castor) Glenn
- December 8, 2016
- Overview
- The Sky’s Irresistible Tug
- Around The World in Five Hours
- Lifelong Adventurer
The man famous for being the first American to orbit Earth continued to push the boundaries of space travel throughout his career.
John Herschel Glenn, Jr.—an astronaut, fighter pilot, and U.S. senator who is best known for being the first American to orbit the planet—died on Thursday at age 95.
Glenn was also the oldest person to fly in space and “the last true national hero America has ever had,” author Tom Wolfe wrote in 1979’s The Right Stuff. Ohio State University announced his death in a statement Thursday. (See intimate pictures of John Glenn's historic mission to orbit Earth.)
Glenn was of Earth, but he preferred to be above it: He was a daredevil in the cockpit whose adventures in orbit exposed him to more sunrises and sunsets than he would otherwise have expected to see in his 95 years.
But “hero” is not a label that Glenn felt comfortable with. “I don’t think of myself that way,” he told the New York Times in 2012. “I get up each day and have the same problems others have at my age. As far as trying to analyze all the attention I received, I will leave that to others.”
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Born July 18, 1921, in Cambridge, Ohio, Glenn’s middle name may have been a prescient hint of his proclivity for the heavens. He shared the name “Herschel” with astronomers William, Caroline, and John, who studied nebulae and comets and discovered infrared radiation and the planet Uranus.
Glenn earned a pilot’s license for credit in a college physics course, and he continued exploring the skies above Earth for the next seven decades.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Glenn quit school and enlisted in the Marines. There, he flew 149 combat missions in the South Pacific and Korea during two wars, earning a number of medals and awards.
He joined NASA as an astronaut in 1959 as part of the Mercury project, which included his famous orbital flight. In 1964, Glenn resigned from NASA and went into politics, serving as a Democratic U.S. senator from Ohio from 1974 to 1999.
He was the primary author of 1978’s Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act, and twice ran for a spot on the Democratic Party’s presidential ticket, first as vice president in 1976 and then for the presidential nomination in 1984.
But even when his primary objectives were rooted firmly on the ground, Glenn felt the irresistible tug of the sky.
Military and political honors are usually more than enough for one person, but Glenn’s indelible legacy is that he inspired an entire country, reassuring a tense Cold War America that it too could send humans into extreme environments and have them accomplish great things.
In the early 1960s, the “space race” was on and the Soviet Union was easily winning. While the U.S. scrambled to establish a working space program, the U.S.S.R. launched Sputnik, and then a dog, and then two humans into orbit.
As one of only seven astronauts in NASA’s nascent Project Mercury, Glenn carried the expectations of a nation.
In 1962, he was scheduled to fly the Mercury-Atlas 6 mission, which would send a U.S. space capsule called Friendship 7 into orbit around the planet for the very first time. Several times, Glenn’s launch was scrubbed.
But on February 20, carrying a tiny National Geographic flag, he soared high above Earth and described sights that no American had ever laid eyes on before.
As Glenn orbited the planet, tracking stations on the ground kept tabs on both his and the spacecraft’s vital signs; first Bermuda, then the Canary Islands, then Zanzibar and others as he completed his orbits.
In 1998, the forever flyer returned to space—this time for nine days, not a mere few hours. That mission, aboard the space shuttle Discovery, made 77-year-old Glenn the oldest human to orbit Earth, and the city of Perth lit up again in honor of Glenn’s journey above.
That flight, he said, was arguably as meaningful as his first trip around Earth, because it would help scientists understand aging on this planet and in space.
Glenn had his flaws, as did most who are called heroes. He testified that women should not be astronauts, was caught up in a financial scandal while in Congress, and was reportedly a “moral zealot” who alienated his fellow astronauts.
He wasn’t shy about voicing his opinions, even when they didn’t necessarily align with the party line. When NASA decided to cancel the space shuttle program, he urged them to keep the shuttles flying.
Dec 8, 2016 · Dec. 8, 2016. John Glenn, a freckle-faced son of Ohio who was hailed as a national hero and a symbol of the space age as the first American to orbit Earth, then became a national political...
Dec 9, 2016 · For John Herschel Glenn Jr., it lasted a lifetime. Glenn is survived by his wife of 73 years, Annie; his two children, John David and Carolyn Ann (Lyn); and two grandchildren.
