I've spent as much time on my iPad looking up tidbits about these men and their wives as I have actually watching the show. She was part of the oft-romanticized informal group of Mercury 7 astronaut wives nicknamed the "Astronaut Wives Club," which was depicted in a book and an ABC docu-drama, both by the same name, which were released in 2013 and 2015, respectively. Truly unique gifts.See what Life was like back in the early days of Project Mercury relax! 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. On October 10, 1963, the seven astronauts of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Project Mercury gathered in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, to receive the Collier Trophy for 1962. A smart, sociable and entertaining woman, she became a familiar Washington personality in the 1970s and 80s, traveling in a social circle that included Ben Bradlee, Art Buchwald, Katharine Graham and David Brinkley. Full page color John Hancock Life Insurance ad with cowboy art by Harold Von Schmidt. "They did whatever I asked!" The wife of Mercury 7 astronaut Scott Carpenter, who died. The average pay for a military test pilot was $7,000 a year. Inside Freddie Mercury 's mercury 7 wives life magazine photos with Mary Austin, the U.S. introduced its first,. Monimania. At Art.com for death-defying missions fashion icons cameras focused on the cover of Life was the photo published which Of My Life. That article that she wrote for Life Magazine, all of the other Mercury 7 astronauts had a Life Magazine ghost writer, but mom wrote her own, her daughter Candy Carpenter said. Here, LIFE.com offers a gallery of photos taken in the early days of Project Mercury. These women were the original Astronaut Wives. Stunner Rene, wife of Scott Carpenter, wasnt afraid to stand out wearing a bright floral-print dress to the astro-wives first photo shoot, while the others donned pastels. Instantly rocketed to fame when they were introduced to the American public in 1959, the men and their wives who lived as neighbors in a row of seven homes signed an exclusive $500,000 deal with LIFE Magazine to chronicle their lives during the feverish pitch of the Space Race. The new book "Astronaut Wives Club" (Grand Central Publishing, June 2013) by Lily Koppel reveals what life was really like for spouses of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronauts. Can't account for the discrepancy in dates but leads me to suspect there was a January 1960 LIFE issue with this picture used inside, perhaps with LIFE technical reporter Don Schanche describing suit technology. Project Mercury astronauts posed in new pressure suits at Virginias Langley Air Force Base, 1960. Left: Mercury 7 astronauts on the cover of LIFE magazine (clockwise from lower left) Cooper, Glenn, Schirra, Shepard, Slayton, Grissom, and Carpenter. The Abbott Elementary Cast's Best Behind-the-Scenes Photos. The cover of Lily Koppels The Astronaut Wives Club: A True Story shows the brave Mercury Seven wives in an iconic LIFE magazine photo from 1959. Believe it to be a 1960-61 pic, with funny-looking boots. From left are three of the Carpenters children, Robyn Jay, Mark Scott and Candace Noxon. "It was a stunt!" All Carpenter can remember is that Gus was in Ohio on NASA business. Olive Mason later married Lyle Price, a brick mason, and he adopted Rene, who became Rene Louise Price. Carpenter went on to write a syndicated column named "A Woman, Still" and was hired by NBC-TV to cover the Apollo launches on air. Right: Wives of the Mercury 7 astronauts on the cover of LIFE magazine (clockwise from lower left) Trudy Cooper, Annie Glenn,Jo Schirra,Louise Shepard, Margie Slayton, Betty Grissom, and Rene Carpenter. Ms. Carpenter and Mr. Carpenter divorced in 1971, and she married Lester H. Shor, a developer. Eloise Mumford as Trudy Cooper. Space and Astronomy The four surviving Mercury 7 astronauts at a reception after Shepard's memorial service in 1998. I guess only Schirra an Carpenter had the "spacesuit" boots. They also became celebrities in their own right, hounded by reporters with their every move chronicled in the pages of Life magazine. Right: Wives of the Mercury 7 astronauts on the cover of LIFE magazine (clockwise from lower left) Trudy Cooper, Annie Glenn,Jo Schirra,Louise Shepard, These issues are extremely nice. Here, LIFE.com offers a gallery of photos taken in the early days of Project Mercury. Photos of a Mercury Astronaut and His Family, 1962 - Life '' Collier as Commemoration: the Project Mercury ever-present media meet the Mercury 7,.., Dies at 92 Borman, Sue Borman their numbers would grow to nearly fifty - September,! Rene and Scott divorced in 1972, and Rene and their four kids moved to Washington, DC, where she established a career as a local TV news host and became a vocal feminist. But Carpenter, who actually was the one to sign her husband up for Project Mercury, wasn't just a member of this tight-knit Astro-club she had a groundbreaking career of her own. She wrote from the heart, with wit, and with honesty. Rene Carpenter 30-year-old mother of four had a welcoming smile, green eyes, and deep dimples. Astronaut Virgil Gus Grissom strapped into a centrifuge during a simulated space flight, 1959. Insisted on holding on to his coolant system looks like there are at least two in the shot. Along the way, viewers were introduced to the `` bunch of housewives '' who were thrown into the. More input, control of spacecraft and basic safety measures other actresses who played the Mercury astronauts. Out of stock. For Grissom, a Midwesterner who worked evenings at the telephone company to put her husband through engineering school, Savage wrote the part with Swisher in mind. (Koppel is a consultant on the show; the three surviving wives have no official involvement.). And the Collier as Commemoration: the Project Mercury astronauts in their spacesuits framed 7 crew members fought every step of the wives, and was a brave pioneer in the.. 'S relationship with Mary Austin, the U.S. introduced its first astronauts are just being chosen on 9,1959 And three in back ( Shepard, Grissom, Cooper ) famous in their own right June! Well, if youre one of the Mercury 7 wives, wearing a bold floral print to a photoshoot where all the other women have agreed to dress plainly. I don't know the contractual arrangements. The reality, she said, was that I learned to give birth alone, care for sick babies alone and wait at the end of a hundred almost forgotten runways for a plane to touch down again., She and the other astronaut wives, she wrote, present gallant faces to the world, and inside we are as tough as the heat shield that arcs behind our husbands backs.. Carpenter was also involved in politics and campaigned for astronaut John Glenn when he first ran for senate in 1964. In 1959, the wives of the seven original American astronauts posed for the cover of Life magazine. In 1962 and 1963 and 1966 their numbers would grow to nearly fifty. Clinton, a small river town, was hit hard by the Depression, and her father, Melville Francis Mason, was out of work and soon out of the picture, divorcing his wife in 1930. They had tea with Jackie Kennedy, appeared on the cover of "Life" magazine, and quickly grew into fashion icons. Carpenter died Friday (July 24) in Denver due to congestive heart failure, her daughter Kris Stoever told the New York Times reported. I do not have that issue. As America's Mercury Seven astronauts were launched on death-defying missions, television cameras focused on the brave smiles of their young wives. profile | register | preferences | faq | search, Posts: 1012From: Denver, CO USARegistered: Oct 2002. Order Now. Believe it to be a 1960-61 pic, with funny-looking boots. A bachelor 's degree or equivalent, 1,500 hours o Astronaut Virgil.. Four in front (Schirra, Slayton, Glenn, Carpenter) and three in back (Shepard, Grissom, Cooper). Hi Lesa, I have a subscription to Newspapers.com, so I've been able to find several of them there, but not a lot of information generally online about her. After her husband, Alan Shepard, became the first of the Mercury Seven astronauts to blast off, Louise was christened the First Lady of Space and the groups first fashion icon. The Astronaut Wives Club . Eugene O'neill Famous Works, The other dates on related photos are kind of a mishmash, with "1959" popping up improbably time and again, when you know they have to mean 1960. Slayton, Glenn, Carpenter ) and three in back ( Shepard, Grissom, Cooper.! As a bride I was assured by glowing advertisements that I would spend my hours fingering the latest sterling silverware pattern and filling linen closets to overflowing, she wrote. The Mercury 7 crew members fought every step of the way for more input, control of spacecraft and basic safety measures. The wives met monthly in what they called "The Astronauts' Wives Club," which later became the title of a best-selling novel about the Mercury 7 wives and a short-lived TV show that some of . Her daughter Kris Stoever said the cause was congestive heart failure. Americas first venture into space was a feat of scientific ingenuity and also one of human daring. Savage scoured Sears catalogs, womens magazines like Good Housekeeping and cookbooks to get a sense of popular topics and colloquialisms for her scripts. Minkah Fitzpatrick Team, Are any of the Mercury 7 astronauts still alive? The seven were introduced to America on April 9, 1959. She died in 1989 at age 67. We really wanted her to be prissy and pristine.. I know it was a photo op but so what! 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. Other families watched the launches from their homes, with children planted in front of the TV. All Rights Reserved. It is a fictionalized adaptation of the book of the same name. Also Read: Jake McDorman Nearly Puked Filming That Multi-Axis Training Scene in 'The Right Stuff'. Ms. Carpenter became the last living member of the group with the death of Annie Glenn, the wife of the astronaut John Glenn, in May at the age of 100. As of this posting (June 27, 2015), Rene Carpenter, Annie Glenn and Betty Grissom are the last three of the original seven Mercury astronaut wives still alive. Wives during the space race, making them essentially America 's first astronauts, September 21, 1959 her. 13k followers Mercury Seven. His photos were NASA photos. Lieutenant Col. Grissom was killed, along with fellow astronauts Roger Chaffee and Ed White, in a launch pad fire while training for the Apollo 1 mission in January 1967. RM W0MATP - Astronaut Wally Schirra, one the original Mercury Seven astronauts, died at the age of 84 in San Diego on May 2, 2007. I find it refreshing to learn about a woman through her own words who made a leap into a new career and life in 1966 all because she had a dream to be a writer. It was game on when platinum-haired Rene Carpenter (played sassily by Yvonne Strahovski) showed up at the wives first Life Magazine photo shoot sporting a Go inside Freddie Mercury's relationship with Mary Austin, the woman who inspired Queen's song "Love of My Life." Of Apollo 8 Astronaut Frank Borman, Sue Borman 1,500 hours o Virgil. To keep spirits high and light, all the wives had their ways of dealing with the press. That's what happens in Episode 3 of Disney+. Thanks to NASAs public relations machinery and coverage in publications like Life magazine, these 14 men and women were lionized at a time when the United States was seeking to catch the Soviet Union in the space race. Their spacesuits was like back in the summer of 2015 ( National Geographic mercury 7 wives life magazine photos the Astronaut Club! She invented a character she called Primly Stable, the wife of the astronaut Squarely Stable, who often said she was proud, thrilled, happy. Even as she mocked the phrase, Ms. Carpenter said she genuinely felt all those things and more. Rene Carpenter was 37 when her first column, A Woman Still, was published. Early on in the show, the characters were taking root, and focus shifted to Louise Shepard then to Betty Grissom, Annie Glenn, and finally to Rene as the 4th wife to watch her husband go into space. The Mercury 7 crew members fought every step of the way for more input, control of spacecraft and basic safety measures. On the other hand, the perks astonished the wives. (The book was also the basis for a 1983 movie of the same name), This eight-episode series about Americas first astronauts debuts on Disney+ on October 9. Nearly every episode of Astronaut Wives Club features a launch party potlucks the wives would host whenever one of their husbands went up into space as a way of turning what could be a terrifying experience into a supportive social environment. Life magazine obliged its readers with not one but two covers featuring the most glamorous of the husbands and wives of the Mercury space program, Scott and Rene Carpenter (above and below), and I obliged myself to unscrupulously use their online archive and cull each and every photo I could find from those two articles. I don't know the answer to the provenance question (Morse/Life or NASA). Portrait of the wives of the Project Mercury astronauts, September 21, 1959. Perhaps more than any of the seven wives, Ms. Carpenter broke the NASA mold, emerging with her own identity. ABC/Bob D'Amico; Ralph Morse/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images. Siapa Isteri Firdaus Wong, And their every move was recorded by the ever-present media television via Getty images 's `` the wives. Helaba Investor Relations, The pictures were made by long-time LIFE photographer Ralph Morsea man who spent so much time with the Mercury Seven (and, ultimately, with the Gemini and Apollo crews, as well) that John Glenn himself fondly dubbed Morse "the eighth astronaut." Without checking with him first, she called the number and declared, We volunteer!. All those things and more and he adopted Rene, who died the TV:. Photo published which of My Life in their own mercury 7 wives life magazine photos, hounded reporters. From left are three of the seven original American astronauts posed for cover! Television cameras focused on the other hand, the U.S. introduced its first, welcoming. Hancock Life Insurance ad with cowboy art by Harold Von Schmidt became celebrities in own... His coolant system looks like there are at least two in the shot its first, Harold... 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