Slayton, along with Brand and Kubasov, won the FAI Yuri Gagarin Gold Medal in 1976. He became the company's president later that year. At the end of the flight, an erroneous switch setting led to noxious nitrogen tetroxide fumes from the command module's RCS thrusters being sucked into the cabin during landing and the crew was hospitalized as a precaution in Honolulu, Hawaii, for two weeks. in April 9, 1959, only six months after the agency itself had been Its guidance and radio systems were used sparingly to conserve battery power and dwindling supplies of oxygen and water. Marge sold the hotel but continued to work there for seven years. Commanders draft class fills several needs, features plenty of value. [17]:345 They divorced in April 1978, and Slayton moved to a condominium near the Johnson Space Center. League City, Galveston, Texas, United States, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X9SW-M12, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VYFV-RV3, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VY3S-S2P, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JVL6-RYS, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J1XR-5PJ, 28 degrees from Pope Saint John Paul II Wojtyla, 25 degrees from Pope Urban VIII Barberini, 45 degrees from Pope Pius VII Chiaramonti, 31 degrees from Pope Victor II Dollnstein-Hirschberg, 25 degrees from Blessed Pope Innocent XI Odescalchi, 28 degrees from Pope Benedict XIII Orsini, Distinguished Flying Cross (United States). 48 Obituaries Wednesday, April 19, 2023 Add Photos 8 Memories Thomas Stephen KRESKO Was born on May 1, 1942 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Later, she gets a new hairdo, he says. Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical Engineering, University of Minnesota. If not, see our friends at Ancestry DNA. The Astronaut Wives Club Wiki is a FANDOM TV Community. Donald Slayton. She was born June 24, 1929 in Crestline, Ohio to Steven and Blanch (Hoffman) Keller. 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. After Gus died when Apollo I exploded during a launchpad test in 1967, Betty was critical of NASA and sued for financial support for her and her two sons. On March 13, 1972, NASA announced that Slayton had returned to flight status. Father: Chas S Slayton [19] Additionally, he received the Collier Trophy, the Gen. Billy Mitchell Award, and the AIAA Haley Astronautics Award for 1978. Leave a sympathy message to the family on the memorial page of Marjorie J. Slayton to pay them a last tribute. [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. Slayton received an Honorary D.Sc. He died from a brain tumor on June 13, 1993, aged 69. Recalled to active duty with the Minnesota Air National Guard. [2]:111114[8][9] Initially, Slayton's ineligibility was only for his assigned mission, and he attempted to improve his health by exercising more regularly and abstaining from alcohol. After 56 combat sorties, Slayton completed his combat tour and returned to the U.S. in May 1944. IMPORTANT PRIVACY NOTICE & DISCLAIMER: YOU HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO USE CAUTION WHEN DISTRIBUTING PRIVATE INFORMATION. [16], Slayton married Marjorie "Marge" Lunney (19211989) on May 18, 1955, and they had one son, Kent Sherman, born April 8, 1957. [12]:496497 Slayton supported keeping Joe Engle as the lunar module pilot on Apollo 17, but was pressured by NASA management to replace him with Jack Schmitt, a scientist-astronaut. He also helped develop the Space Shuttle. [7]:98 In 1959, during a centrifuge training course, he underwent an electrocardiogram that found that he had erratic heart activity. Let the family know you are thinking of them. As a student, he supported himself using the GI Bill and by working at a Montgomery Ward warehouse. 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. Copyright 2023 Echovita Inc. All rights reserved. Despite her husbands reputation for infidelity, the couple remained married and retired to California. Giving to charity is a meaningful way to honor someone who has died. . October 26, 2022 (75 years old) View obituary. : U.S. At the time of his death, Mr. Slayton was director of Space Services Inc., a pioneering company in the business of launching small satellites. . 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. Mr. Glenn is a Democratic Senator from Ohio; Mr. Shepard, a Houston business executive; Mr. Schirra, an aerospace consultant in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.; Mr. Carpenter, an author and aerospace consultant in Vail, Colo., and Mr. Cooper, chief executive of Galaxy Group Inc., a company in Van Nuys, Calif., that refurbishes airplanes. Then came the most bitter disappointment of Mr. Slayton's career. Perhaps it was age and the satisfaction of having had his flight in space, but Mr. Slayton seemed to shed his stone-faced reserve. ABC/Bob D'Amico; Ralph Morse/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images. (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 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. Slayton married Marjorie Lunney on 15 May 1955; they had one child and divorced in 1983. Visitation will be from 10 a.m to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 28 at Laughlin Service Funeral Home. They died five weeks apart in 1998. Afterwards, Slayton flew out of Salerno and Corsica, where he upgraded from copilot to pilot. September 18, 2022 (92 years old) View obituary. Marge Slayton is the wife of astronaut Deke Slayton.Personality Marge can best be described as sassy, feisty, witty, but has a caring side. Pages using duplicate arguments in template calls, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. But when asked what might happen if one of the two solid-fuel boosters failed shortly after liftoff, he reverted to fatalism. Female but tragedy struck. [25] The Texas Oncology-Deke Slayton Cancer Center in Webster, Texas, is named in his honor. . The lunar module, where the astronauts had holed up for days, was jettisoned. [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. [4] After moving to Seattle, Slayton lived in a rooming house and began working as a junior design engineer. Awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal his fourth of 5. With the command modules electrical system failing, the three astronauts moved to the smaller lunar module, a fragile craft built for only two. He was one of four flight directors for Apollo 11, the 1969 mission on which astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Buzz Aldrin became the first people to set foot on the moon. [2]:280281,290[1][14]:160166, The Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft both launched on July 15, 1975. Donald is 28 degrees from Pope Saint John Paul II Wojtyla, 25 degrees from Pope Urban VIII Barberini, 23 degrees from Pope Alexander VI Borgia, 45 degrees from Pope Pius VII Chiaramonti, 33 degrees from Pope John XI di Roma, 31 degrees from Pope Victor II Dollnstein-Hirschberg, 31 degrees from Pope St Leo IX Egisheim, 23 degrees from Pope Leo X Medici, 25 degrees from Blessed Pope Innocent XI Odescalchi, 28 degrees from Pope Benedict XIII Orsini, 25 degrees from Pope Pius II Piccolomini and 21 degrees from Fiona McMichael on our single family tree. Entered the United States Army Air Force. Co-founder of Mercury Seven Foundation, fore-runner of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation and its United States Astronaut Hall of Fame. With two other Americans, Mr. Slayton flew the Apollo in July 1975 to a docking with a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft. The next year, he was one of four flight directors for Apollo 13, along with Milton Windler, Gerald D. Griffin and Eugene Kranz. Slayton chose to replace Ken Mattingly with Jack Swigert on Apollo 13, after concerns arose that Mattingly could develop measles during the mission. In order to avoid confusion in radio communications, Slayton was referred to by his initials, D.K., which were eventually shortened to "Deke. [5] He was first assigned to the F-102, and tested the Matador and Genie missiles, and later tested the stall-spin characteristics of the F-105. 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. His hobbies were hunting, fishing, shooting, and airplane racing. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. He initially wished to join the U.S. Navy, but joined the U.S. Army Air Forces when it began accepting high school graduates to fly. Deke Slayton (husband)Kent Sherman (son) There is no photo or video of Marjorie J. Slayton.Be the first to share a memory to pay tribute. Marjorie "Marge" Slayton ne Lunney was the wife of NASA Mercury W astronaut and Chief of Astronaut Office, Deke Slayton. [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. Slayton, who had one son, divorced for a second time in 1983 over husband Dekes cheating. She was married to NASA astronaut Donald "Deke" Slayton from 1955 to 1983. He died in 1993 at his [2]:2324 After he arrived in Naples, the 340th Bombardment Group moved to San Petrazio, where Slayton flew combat missions into the Balkan Peninsula. The two other Mercury astronauts, Walter M. Schirra Jr. and L. Gordon Cooper Jr., would get their flights, too, concluding the project the next May. By some calculations, the spacecraft would run out of fuel before it could return. She married Deke on May 18, 1955. Mr. Slayton was assigned to fly the second Mercury mission in orbit. (NASA) Mercury Seven astronauts. After the initial report of distress on April 13, Mr. Lunney and his team worked for 14 hours straight, calling it the longest night in the history of the space program. 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. Born in Staten Island, NY, she was the daughter of the late Peter Mulligan and the late Marjorie (Rutkowski) Mulligan. Nancy H. Slayton, 87, of Wallace Back Rd. Better yet: Deke Slayton was scheduled to pilot the Mercury-Atlas 7 mission! A bit of a daredevil, Trudy drove a sports car (while the other wives drove station wagons) and donned a wardrobe of pedal-pushers, jeans and shorts. Slayton graduated from flight training on April 22, 1943, and was assigned to fly on the B-25 Mitchell, his last choice for aircraft. [28] The Slayton biographical exhibit includes his Mercury space suit, his Ambassador of Exploration Award, which showcases a lunar sample, and more. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. She was widowed in 2016 and died May 19, 2020, at age of 100, due to complications from COVID-19. Consider offering these words of comfort if you're not sure what's appropriate. Producers cast Annable, who has a tomboy quality, to play the headstrong Trudy, who came to base with a secret that she left her husband Gordo when she discovered his affair and only returned for the sake of his NASA career. Marjorie Gehlsen Obituary We are sad to announce that on December 15, 2020 we had to say goodbye to Marjorie Gehlsen of Slayton, Minnesota. Midcentury neighborhoods in their filming location of New Orleans were scouted to double as the space burbs of Houston and Florida. I had a brief period when the severity of the problem really struck home, he said in a NASA oral history. Marjorie J. Slayton 1912 Wisconsin Marjorie J. Slayton, born 1912 Gender She opens up as it goes on. After Alan Shepard was grounded due to Mnire's disease, he replaced Slayton as the manager of the astronaut office, while Slayton continued to work for Flight Crew Operations and was promoted to its director in 1966. 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. On March 15, 1962, two months prior to the launch of Delta 7, Slayton was medically disqualified from the flight and replaced on the mission by Scott Carpenter. [2]:115122 In an administrative restructuring in October 1963, Slayton became assistant director of Flight Crew Operations, in addition to his job managing the astronaut office. Leave a message for others who see this profile. Battle With His Heart. The two women are both married to astronauts, Walter M Schirra and Donald K Slayton respectively, though only Slayton was on the Apollo 7. This space highway guided the crippled ship back to planet Earth, where people from all continents were bonded in support of these three explorers-in-peril. She was called "the Queen" by other astronaut wives. After joining NASA, Slayton was selected to pilot the second U.S. manned orbital spaceflight, but was grounded in 1962 by a heart murmur. [2]:17[note 1] After graduation, Slayton moved to San Antonio, Texas, and entered the Aviation Cadet Training Program. He was selected for the second American crewed orbital mission, Mercury-Atlas 7, which he intended to name Delta 7. 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.