Author Highlights the Stories of Remarkable Women
Martha Ackmann says at her core, she’s a storyteller, and at the fall conference, she shared two remarkable stories with the women of the Griffiths Leadership Society.
“I write narrative non-fiction. I take a true story and make it as compelling as I can,” she says.
Ackmann is a member of the faculty at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts where she teaches courses in women’s public writing, biography and the poet Emily Dickinson. As a journalist, author and editor, she focuses her work about women who have changed America.
One of those stories is that of the Mercury 13, the women who entered in a testing regimen for the young space program during the Mercury era.
These women were: Myrtle Cagle, Jerrie Cobb, Jan and Marion Dietrich, Wally Funk (a graduate of Stephens College), Janey Hart, Jean Hixson, Gene Nora Jessen, Irene Leverton, Sarah Ratley, Bernice Steadman, Jerri Truhill, and Rhea Woltman. In 1959, the same year the Mercury 7 were introduced, the women entered a physical testing program at the Lovelace Clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Randy Lovelace, the founder of the clinic, wondered how women would perform in these tests. In all, there were 75 tests run from dawn to dusk, and it was dubbed the “Girl Astronaut Program.”
The testing was completed with all 13 passing.
In 1960, Congress decided that all astronauts would be pulled from the military pilot programs, which at that time eliminated any potential of women going to space.
“They didn’t get into space, but they kicked the door in,” Ackmann says. “They proved that all women want to explore the world and live large.”
When Eileen Collins became the first woman to command the space shuttle in 1999, most members of the Mercury 13 were present for the lift-off.
Ackmann shares the details of this dramatic story in her book, “The Mercury 13.” She also authored, “Curveball: the Remarkable Story of Toni Stone,” which chronicles the life of a young woman from Minnesota who went on be the first woman to play professional based in the Negro League.
You can find out more about both books at Ackmann’s website: http://www.marthaackmann.com.