1959 Selected by NASA in Astronaut Group 1. Later, she gets a new hairdo, he says. September 18, 2022 (92 years old) View obituary. He tested the F-101, F-102, F-104, F-105 and F-106. . His partners in Mercury 7 were Wally Schirra, John Glenn, One of the great things about the space program is its super well-documented, says executive producer Stephanie Savage. Recalled to active duty with the Minnesota Air National Guard. They remained married until his death. [2]:104105,110 In early 1962, NASA Administrator James Webb opened an investigation into Slayton's atrial fibrillation. Marjorie "Marge" Slayton ne Lunney was the wife of NASA MercuryW astronaut and Chief of Astronaut Office, Deke Slayton. Iris Klein. Prop food is not necessarily getting eaten so it didnt have to be delicious, she says. Series Information In real life, theres a whole thing about her wearing the pearls and white shoes we used that as her signature thing, Daman says. In 1976, he received the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Space Award, the American Heart Association's Heart of the Year Award, the District 35-R Lions International American of the Year Award, and the AAS Flight Achievement Award. It was highly arranged in these almost obsessive-compulsive decorative patterns.. In 1977, he received the AIAA Special Presidential Citation, the University of Minnesota's Outstanding Achievement Award, and the Houston Area Federal Business Association's Civil Servant of the Year Award. Trudy was a [licensed] pilot in her own right, and she was a forward-thinker when it came to how she thought marriage should work, Savage says. [26] The main stretch of road in League City, Texas, FM 518, was renamed Deke Slayton Highway. He contacted his previous squadron commander in Minnesota and accepted his offer to rejoin his former squadron in February 1951. Grief researchers say holding that missing funeral service, even a year or more later, can still help us heal. October 26, 2022 (75 years old) View obituary. Died in League City, Galveston, Texas, USA. Much of the world was watching on television when the crippled spaceship splashed down on April 17. But the 10 years of experience kicked in and it took about 10-20 seconds for me to return from that place. edit descriptions of this character Marjorie Slayton's photo gallery Books with Marjorie Slayton Awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal his fourth of 5. Gary Lee Brinks. Deke Slayton - Wikipedia Leave a sympathy message to the family in the guestbook on this memorial page of Marjorie Gehlsen to show support. [12]:288 In 1969, he made the controversial decision to assign Alan Shepard as the Apollo 13 commander, which was viewed by some astronauts as a conflict of interest, due to Shepard's previous position as head of the astronaut office. Eventually he advanced to one of the choice roles in aviation, that of an experimental test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base in California. IMPORTANT PRIVACY NOTICE & DISCLAIMER: YOU HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO USE CAUTION WHEN DISTRIBUTING PRIVATE INFORMATION. [2]:115116[3] Flight doctors recommended a cardiac catheterization to determine if he had a congenital condition, but NASA management rejected the proposal because of the risks of the operation. (NASA) Mercury Seven astronauts. Manned Space from Mercury to the Shuttle, which was published in 1994, a year after his death. Allan Grant/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images, Ralph Morse/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images. Information and advice to help you cope with the death of someone important to you. Trudy, who had two daughters with husband Gordo, eventually left him for good in the late 1960s and has since died. Categories: Notables | United States of America, Notables | United States Air Force | NASA Astronauts | Apollo-Soyuz Astronauts | Distinguished Flying Cross (United States) | NASA Distinguished Service Medal | NASA Exceptional Service Medal | Air Medal | United States Astronaut Hall of Fame, WIKITREE HOME | ABOUT | G2G FORUM | HELP | SEARCH. She was called "the Queen" by other astronaut wives. The Right Stuff, Christopher C. Kraft Jr., a former director of the Johnson center, said that Mr. Slayton "had the qualities you really wanted in the American astronaut of his time: he was a superb flyer, a good engineer and was cognizant of the importance of his position to the country, what he had to do and how he had to do it.". He served as a maintenance officer while waiting for his medical clearance and then became a maintenance flight test officer once he had returned to flying status. He went on to become NASA's first Chief of the Astronaut Office and Director of Flight Crew Operations, responsible for NASA crew assignments. Slayton married Marjorie Lunney on 15 May 1955; they had one child and divorced in 1983. Marge can best be described as sassy, feisty, witty, but has a caring side. Slayton was a friend of fellow astronaut Gus Grissom. The First Private Rocket Launch", "Donald Slayton Dies at 69; Was One of First Astronauts", "Mercury Astronauts Dedicate Hall of Fame at Florida Site", "National Aviation Hall of fame: Our Enshrinees", "Texas Oncology-Deke Slayton Cancer Center", "ISS Commercial Resupply Services Mission (Orb-3): Mission Update October 22, 2014", "First stage propulsion system is early focus of Antares investigation", "Atlas Launches Cygnus Cargo Spacecraft to Space Station", "Solstar flying higher on WeFunder investments", "Solstar to provide assured communications for deorbiting LEO satellites SatNews", "Scott Paulin had the 'Right Stuff' for role in film", "NASA's true, amazing, out of this world G-whiz forces", NASA Astronaut Group 1, "The Mercury Seven", "The Original Seven" 1959, List of United States Marine Corps astronauts, List of United States Space Force astronauts, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 5, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 14, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Deke_Slayton&oldid=1134383991, Deaths from brain cancer in the United States, Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States), Recipients of the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, Recipients of the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, United States Astronaut Hall of Fame inductees, University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering alumni, United States Army Air Forces bomber pilots of World War II, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Wikipedia articles incorporating text from NASA, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 18 January 2023, at 11:59. [2]:2632, Immediately upon his return to Columbia Army Air Base to serve as a B-25 instructor, Slayton applied and was accepted to fly the new A-26 Invader bomber aircraft. Slayton was scheduled to pilot the second U.S. crewed orbital spaceflight, but was grounded in 1962 by atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm. It was not about landing on the moon in the right place. AKA Donald Kent Slayton. He became the company's president later that year. [17]:350[2]:318, When Slayton was a test pilot, one of his pilot colleagues was also named Don. Marjorie. (Mr. Lunney did not appreciate the movie: They didnt give me credit for any of the work that I did, he said in 2019. In 1968, he became the chief of NASAs flight directors office, responsible for supervising other flight directors and training the many flight controllers and engineers who worked at what is now the Johnson Space Center in Houston. After six weeks, he moved to Foggia, where 48 aircraft were destroyed after an eruption of Mount Vesuvius. (October 8, 1983 - June 13, 1993) (his death), (May 15, 1955 - July 11, 1983) (divorced, 1 child), View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro. Slayton attempted to join an Air Force Reserve unit in Seattle at the start of the Korean War, but was rejected on the grounds that his inactive reserve status had expired. They died five weeks apart in 1998. Here is Marjorie J. Slayton's obituary. The two women are both married to astronauts, Walter M Schirra and Donald K Slayton respectively, though only Slayton was on the Apollo 7. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. In 1987, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association created an annual award in her honor. but tragedy struck. They remained married until his death. Carpenter flaunted her own sense of style rather than following trends, so Daman put Strahovski in sexier silhouettes. in April 9, 1959, only six months after the agency itself had been She was the loving wife of Leo Lunney. For the first and only time in 10 years of console experiences in training and actual flights, I had the sense of the bottom falling out from under me and my stomach heading for that dark hole. Houston, Swigert memorably said to mission control, weve had a problem here., Before Mr. Lunneys shift began about 10 p.m., he later said in a NASA documentary, we were well aware that we had a big problem on our hands. If theres a Charlotte in this group of gal pals, its perfect Navy wife Jo, who rocked twin sets and headbands like a preppy pro. December 2, 2011 Yes Marjorie J. Slayton Obituary. 1957 Son Kent Sherman Slayton is born. Despite her husbands reputation for infidelity, the couple remained married and retired to California. He married Marjorie "Marge" Lunney (1921-1989) in May 1955, and they had one son, Kent Sherman, born April 8, 1957. from Carthage College in 1961, and an Honorary Doctorate in Engineering from Michigan Technological University in 1965. They were 80 percent of the way to their destination on April 13, 1970, when all of us heard a rather large bang, Lovell later said. selected to the Apollo/Soyuz mission. Prepare a personalized obituary for someone you loved.. June 24, 1929 - Consider offering these words of comfort if you're not sure what's appropriate. Shepard would be later reassigned to command Apollo 14 by the Office of Manned Spaceflight director George Mueller, against Slayton's wishes, who felt that Shepard needed additional training time. Donald Slayton: family. What Shows Have Been Renewed or Canceled? 2008 - 2023 INTERESTING.COM, INC. CONTENT MAY BE COPYRIGHTED BY WIKITREE COMMUNITY MEMBERS. Gordon passed away on October 25, 2003. A unique and lasting tribute for a loved one. In November 1963, he resigned from his commission in the Air Force after he was permanently disqualified from flying and became a civilian executive for NASA. During the selection of the Group 8 astronauts, Slayton advocated for fewer selections, with the expectation that two-man crews would fly the regular satellite deployment missions. Have you taken a DNA test? Female [27] The Deke Slayton Memorial Space & Bicycle Museum in Sparta, Wisconsin was named in his honor. In 1959, he applied to, and was selected as one of the Mercury Seven, NASA's first class of astronauts. Personal Information He additionally served as an F-86 Sabre pilot and maintenance officer with the 36th Fighter Day Wing at Bitburg Air Base, West Germany. Slayton Obituaries - Latest Obituaries in Slayton, MN - Echovita Please accept Echovita's sincere condolences. At the age of five, Slayton was clearing a horse-drawn hay mower when his left ring finger was severed. He was adopted by Stephen H. and Ella Kresko. home. In part this was because a heart problem kept him out of space for years. [12]:42, During the Apollo 1 fire, Slayton was in the Cape Canaveral LC-34 blockhouse. Mr. Lunney considered five possibilities for where the Apollo should land before concluding that the best plan was to bring the spacecraft down in the Pacific Ocean, near U.S. Navy ships and helicopters. William Lunney Obituary (2020) - Huntington Beach, CA - Orange County If youre in charge of handling the affairs for a recently deceased loved one, this guide offers a helpful checklist. [2]:3340[3], After he was discharged from the Army, Slayton enrolled at the University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis, and studied aeronautical engineering. WIKITREE PROTECTS MOST SENSITIVE INFORMATION BUT ONLY TO THE EXTENT STATED IN THE TERMS OF SERVICE AND PRIVACY POLICY. https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VYFV-RVQ, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JG72-8Z6, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VZ87-KDK, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deke_Slayton, https://history.nasa.gov/40thmerc7/slayton.htm, 29 degrees from Pope Saint John Paul II Wojtyla, 26 degrees from Pope Urban VIII Barberini, 46 degrees from Pope Pius VII Chiaramonti, 32 degrees from Pope Victor II Dollnstein-Hirschberg, 26 degrees from Blessed Pope Innocent XI Odescalchi, 29 degrees from Pope Benedict XIII Orsini, "Texas Divorce Index, 1968-2010," database, FamilySearch (, "United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (, "Texas Death Index, 1903-2000," database, FamilySearch (. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. [31] In 2017, Solstar and NASA developed a preliminary design for Slayton Space Communicator (SC-Slayton), a commercial router on the International Space Station named in his honor. Gus Grissom died in January 1967 when fire erupted in an Apollo spacecraft during a test on the launching pad. While traveling near the Strait of Gibraltar, their ships came under attack from German bombers and submarines. [12]:1617[2]:185,189 After the fire, Slayton called a meeting of the astronauts from the first groups to be chosen, in April 1967 and announced that they were the candidates for the first lunar landing. [4], He was a fellow of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP) and the American Astronautical Society, as well as an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. In his NASA oral history, Mr. Lunney looked back on the dramatic rescue of Apollo 13 as the best piece of operations work I ever did or could hope to do., We built a quarter-million mile space highway, he added, paved by one decision, one choice, and one innovation at a time repeated constantly over almost four days to bring the crew safely home. On April 2, 1959, Slayton was notified of his selection as an astronaut. Two months before his scheduled flight, doctors grounded Mr. Slayton because of an abnormal heartbeat caused by atrial fibrillation. Throughout Slayton's childhood, his family's home did not have electricity or indoor plumbing. [2]:17[note 1] After graduation, Slayton moved to San Antonio, Texas, and entered the Aviation Cadet Training Program. Entered the United States Army Air Force. Donald K. Slayton, one of the original seven American astronauts and an influential manager in the space agency, died yesterday at his home in League City, Tex., near the Johnson Space Center in. Deke Slayton - Biography - IMDb Yvonne was someone we thought would be a great Rene, because she can play the glamour side, but also has this intelligence and drive, Savage says. [15][2]:329342 Slayton also became interested in aviation racing, and was President of International Formula One Pylon Air Racing and Director of Columbia Astronautics. He went on to become NASA's first Chief of the Astronaut Office and Director of Flight Crew Operations, responsible for NASA crew assignments. Nancy H. Slayton, 87, of Wallace Back Rd. Nobody else even seemed to notice.. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1949, and accepted a job as an engineer with the Boeing Aircraft Corporation at Seattle, Washington. [7]:98 In 1959, during a centrifuge training course, he underwent an electrocardiogram that found that he had erratic heart activity. Mother: Victoria A Larson[1]. Astronaut Ken Mattingly, who was bumped from the flight because of possible exposure to measles, later called Mr. Lunneys unflappable leadership of his flight team professionalism at its finest, absolutely the most magnificent performance Ive ever watched.. He gave Cummings a film-noir style fitting for the decade with lots of shoulder pads, slinky sweaters and form-fitting dresses to hug her curves. You have funeral questions, we have answers. He also served on the Department of Transportation's Commercial Space Advisory Committee. [2]:4049, In 1952, Slayton transferred to active duty Air Force from the Air National Guard. From a young age, he worked on the farm to raise sheep and cows, and grow tobacco. Like that other 60s-era show Mad Men, producers sought to meticulously re-create the decade: Ninety percent of the costumes are vintage, sourced by Daman on sites like Etsy and 1stdibs. Slayton Obituaries | Local Obits for Slayton, MN - Legacy.com Deke Slayton (husband) John Flannigan (ex-husband), Trudy Cooper Annie Glenn Betty Grissom Louise Shepard Rene CarpenterJo Schirra. Often desserts would have Technicolor aspect to them, she says. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Steve Shorlin . Five of the original seven astronauts survive. [10], Prior to the ASTP flight, Slayton was assigned by Chris Kraft to manage the Approach and Landing Tests (ALT) of the Space Shuttle program. [2]:271[12]:450451, While grounded, Slayton took several measures to attempt to be restored to flight status, including regularly exercising, taking vitamins, quitting cigarette smoking and coffee and reducing his consumption of alcoholic beverages. For All Mankind Wiki is a FANDOM TV Community. It probably glows in the dark, too: Jell-o mold. That meant lots of cream-colored clothes, sleeveless sheath dresses and pencil skirts paired with a sweater over the shoulders. Louise (Dominique McElligott, from left), Jo (Zoe Boyle) and Marge (Erin Cummings) celebrate their husbands being named to the Mercury Seven group in Thursdays Astronaut Wives Club premiere. He married Marjorie "Marge" Lunney (1921-1989) in May 1955, and they had one son, Kent Sherman, born April 8, 1957. Slayton came from a poor background and had to hide the fact that she was a divorcee. She was widowed in 2016 and died May 19, 2020, at age of 100, due to complications from COVID-19. For years, as chief of flight operations at the Johnson Space Center, he directed astronaut training and selected the crews for nearly all missions, including the Apollo flights to the Moon. Slayton received an Honorary D.Sc. [2]:1015 He attended a two-room elementary school in Leon, and graduated from Sparta High School in 1942, where he boxed, played trombone, and was active in the Future Farmers of America (FFA). We really wanted her to be prissy and pristine.. He moved to Selfridge Field in Michigan for training, and began preparing for a deployment to the Pacific. [2]:2324 After he arrived in Naples, the 340th Bombardment Group moved to San Petrazio, where Slayton flew combat missions into the Balkan Peninsula. Marjorie Gehlsen Obituary We are sad to announce that on December 15, 2020 we had to say goodbye to Marjorie Gehlsen of Slayton, Minnesota. After 56 combat sorties, Slayton completed his combat tour and returned to the U.S. in May 1944. Write your message of sympathy today. Battle With His Heart. In truth, other astronauts and space officials say, Mr. Slayton probably exerted a greater influence on the American space program over a longer period than any other single astronaut. Annables vintage top and pants were rented from Western Costumes and her airplane necklace is from charmco.com ($265). "Donald K. "Deke" Slayton," 40th Anniversary of the Mercury 7. It was determined to be benign, but he would have likely been grounded from ASTP if it had been discovered before the flight. He was technical director of the Apollo-Soyuz project in 1975, when U.S. and Soviet astronauts linked up in space. Giving to charity is a meaningful way to honor someone who has died. Scott Carpenter, Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, and Gordon Cooper. Donald Kent Slayton was born on March 1, 1924, on a farm near Leon, Wisconsin, to Charles Sherman Slayton (18871972) and Victoria Adelia Slayton (ne Larson; 18951970). [32] The device is intended for low-earth orbit service (LEO).[33]. Slayton, along with Brand and Kubasov, won the FAI Yuri Gagarin Gold Medal in 1976. 4 In 1970 his palpitations became more frequent and he started taking experimental daily doses of quinidine, a crystalline alkaloid. Donald K. Slayton, one of the original seven American astronauts and an influential manager in the space agency, died yesterday at his home in League City, Tex., near the Johnson Space Center in suburban Houston. He was a member of the Experimental Aircraft Association, the Space Pioneers, the Confederate Air Force, the Order of Daedalians, the National Rifle Association of America, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the Fraternal Order of Eagles. Donald Slayton. As a student, he supported himself using the GI Bill and by working at a Montgomery Ward warehouse. Will that be enough? The Cygnus CRS Orb-3 mission, which was lost when the Antares rocket exploded during its launch, was named the S.S. Deke Slayton. [2]:166168,184 Slayton created a crew rotation, where a crew would be selected as the backup crew for a mission and would later be the prime crew three missions later. There are no events at this time. Marjorie Lunney Slayton Nicknames: Marge Resides: Houston, Texas Family: Deke Slayton Kent Sherman Slayton (son) Romances: Deke Slayton (husband) John Flannigan (ex-husband) He was initially medically delayed because of his severed ring finger, but was deemed able to fly. Some basic help and starters when you have to write a tribute to someone you love. Became the oldest rookie astronaut at the age of 51 when he was [12]:27 Slayton oversaw the crew reassignments for the upcoming Apollo missions, as well as the selection for Group 6 and Group 7 astronauts. The American crew began a two-year training program, which included learning the Russian language and making trips to the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in the USSR. The Mercury 7 program was introduced They also became celebrities in their own right, hounded by reporters with their every move chronicled in the pages of Life magazine. She married Deke on May 18, 1955. Not only because she has beautiful red hair, but also because she has a real matter-of-fact quality to her, and has a huge heart. (Koppel is a consultant on the show; the three surviving wives have no official involvement.). He then served as NASA's director of flight crew operations, making him responsible for crew assignments at NASA from November 1963 until March 1972. If so, login to add it. Upon graduation from high school in 1942, he entered the Air Force and flew 56 combat missions over Europe as a B-25 pilot and 7 over Japan. They were divorced in 1983, and she has since died. She married Deke on May 18, 1955. Slayton flew his final combat mission on August 12, three days after the bombing of Nagasaki and spent two months waiting for his return to the U.S. After the war, Slayton worked as B-25 instructor in Albany, Georgia, and Boca Raton, Florida and separated from the Army in November 1946. [17]:345 They divorced in April 1978, and Slayton moved to a condominium near the Johnson Space Center. Rte. . 2008 - 2023 INTERESTING.COM, INC. [9] After a decade of seeing doctors around the world,[13] in 1971 Slayton was examined at the Mayo Clinic after a long period without heart fibrillation, and was determined to not have a coronary condition. [29][30] The Cygnus CRS Orb-4 Orbital ATK space vehicle was named the S.S. Deke Slayton II and launched to the International Space Station on December 6, 2015, on an Atlas V rocket. Alan B. Shepard Jr. and Virgil I. Grissom had each made test flights in 1961, and the next February John H. Glenn Jr. had become the first American to orbit Earth. He joined the United States Air Force, and attended the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School in 1955. She became an advocate for people with speech disorders and an adjunct professor of speech pathology at Ohio State University. She and Gordo, in real life, met in Hawaii, so we wanted to add a bit of a tiki trend, which he incorporated through a palette of Mediterranean blues and rust, surf prints and palm trees. He reapplied and was accepted in 1955, and joined TPS Class 55C. NASA leadership determined that Slayton was still at risk for atrial fibrillation and removed his eligibility to fly any of the remaining Mercury missions. wife: Bobbie Osborn : children: * ** ** * from 1 st marriage with Marjorie Lunney ** the NASA Astronaut Office asked us to remove the children's data for security reasons. He had been treated for several years for leukemia. Turducken its not: Crown roast of frankfurters. Donald Kent " Deke " Slayton (March 1, 1924 - June 13, 1993) was a United States Air Force pilot, aeronautical engineer, and test pilot who was selected as one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts. A Lighter Outlook, Asked before one shuttle mission what the astronauts would be doing between then and the launching, a question that used to elicit a sober listing of flight plans to be studied and so forth, Mr. Slayton replied, "I think they'll be goofing off.". The next year, he was one of four flight directors for Apollo 13, along with Milton Windler, Gerald D. Griffin and Eugene Kranz. Back then, people didnt throw away clothing, and I feel like Marge might have peaked in the late 40s, Daman says. Marjorie is 29 degrees from Pope Saint John Paul II Wojtyla, 26 degrees from Pope Urban VIII Barberini, 24 degrees from Pope Alexander VI Borgia, 46 degrees from Pope Pius VII Chiaramonti, 34 degrees from Pope John XI di Roma, 32 degrees from Pope Victor II Dollnstein-Hirschberg, 32 degrees from Pope St Leo IX Egisheim, 24 degrees from Pope Leo X Medici, 26 degrees from Blessed Pope Innocent XI Odescalchi, 29 degrees from Pope Benedict XIII Orsini, 26 degrees from Pope Pius II Piccolomini and 22 degrees from Fiona McMichael on our single family tree. On June 13, 1993, he died in his home in League City, Texas, from the illness, at the age of 69. The best poems for funerals, memorial services., and cards. [2]:7879,8586 During the uncrewed Mercury-Atlas 4 orbital spaceflight, he worked at the tracking station in Bermuda. . [28] The Slayton biographical exhibit includes his Mercury space suit, his Ambassador of Exploration Award, which showcases a lunar sample, and more. While at Boeing, he worked on the B-52 Stratofortress and the KC-97 Stratofreighter. As she grows and comes out of her shell a little bit, by the end shes really all-American in red, white and blue, Daman says. (Photo by NASA/PhotoQuest/Getty Images) View of Jo Schirra (nee Fraser, 1924 - 2015) (left) and Marjorie Slayton (nee Lunney, 1921 - 1989) as they view a television transmission (from NASA's Apollo 7 . He later worked on the Skylab and space shuttle projects before leaving NASA in 1985. [1][2]:306312, The ALT program ended in late 1977 and Slayton agreed to manage the Space Shuttle's Orbital Flight Tests (OFT). Kranz, who was portrayed in the 1995 film Apollo 13 by Ed Harris, is rightly given credit for his calmness under pressure and for working to save the mission from disaster. While stationed in Germany, he met Marjorie Lunney and married her on May 18, 1955. During hospitalization, a lesion was discovered on Slayton's lung and removed. There was always a lot of Jell-O, casseroles on the table. Annie was the envy of the other wives for her picture-perfect marriage to John Glenn, who was very protective of the timid Annie because of her stutter which Daman reflected in Parsons fashions. Better yet: Deke Slayton was scheduled to pilot the Mercury-Atlas 7 mission! The Astronaut Wives Club (premiering Thursday at 8 p.m. on ABC) tells the true story of seven modest military wives who rocketed to fame when their husbands Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton were named as NASAs original Mercury astronauts in 1959. Date of birth Then came the most bitter disappointment of Mr. Slayton's career. After retiring from NASA to go to work for Space Services, the first privately financed American space enterprise, he directed the Houston-based company's first launching of a dummy spacecraft, in September 1982. Jo and husband Wally had two children and remained married until his death in 2007. Also big earrings, big flowers, kitschy, quirky accessories that were not in the best of taste, but really helped identify her character.. Awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, his fifth of 5.

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