# Annie Glenn has died. She was 100. (wife of John Glenn, astronaut, US Marine)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annie-glenn-has-died-she-was-100-wife-of-john-glenn-astronaut-us-marine/854115>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [May 19, 2020, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annie-glenn-has-died-she-was-100-wife-of-john-glenn-astronaut-us-marine/854115 "2020-05-19T15:14:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 13\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2020, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annie-glenn-has-died-she-was-100-wife-of-john-glenn-astronaut-us-marine/854115/1 "2020-05-19T15:14:49Z")

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I just caught this on the news. [Annie Glenn, widow of former astronaut and U.S. Senator John Glenn, dies at 100](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/05/19/annie-glenn-widow-astronaut-us-senator-john-glenn-dies-100/5219556002/)

I remember that scene from The Right Stuff when she, stuttering, tells her husband on the phone that the President, LBJ, insisted on visiting her, and John Glenn emphatically says to her that if she doesn’t want him to visit then he will back her up 100% and he’ll tell the NASA reps pressuring her to go take a hike.

And I remember saying to myself that’s the kind of husband I want to be.

Rest In Peace, Anna Margaret Castor Glenn.

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**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2020, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annie-glenn-has-died-she-was-100-wife-of-john-glenn-astronaut-us-marine/854115/2 "2020-05-19T15:25:13Z")

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Here is that scene from _The Right Stuff_ — [Glenn's phone call with Annie... - YouTube](https://youtu.be/YnjctxFyFLU).

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**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2020, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annie-glenn-has-died-she-was-100-wife-of-john-glenn-astronaut-us-marine/854115/3 "2020-05-19T15:55:56Z")

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☹ Dangit. I really liked and respected her. Godspeed Mrs. Glenn.

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**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2020, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annie-glenn-has-died-she-was-100-wife-of-john-glenn-astronaut-us-marine/854115/4 "2020-05-19T19:29:20Z")

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actress who played Mrs. Glenn in that scene only did a few movies. She’s the mother of Emily and Zooey Deschanel. LBJ was VP during that scene.

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**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2020, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annie-glenn-has-died-she-was-100-wife-of-john-glenn-astronaut-us-marine/854115/5 "2020-05-19T19:36:55Z")

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I remember that scene (which was also in the book by Tom Wolfe) and while yes, Husband John backed her all the way, it was Annie that first (and last) said no. Tough lady. It’s our loss.

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**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2020, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annie-glenn-has-died-she-was-100-wife-of-john-glenn-astronaut-us-marine/854115/6 "2020-05-20T02:17:43Z")

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Thanks for the link. I didn’t know anything about her.

She had to be a very special lady.

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**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2020, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annie-glenn-has-died-she-was-100-wife-of-john-glenn-astronaut-us-marine/854115/7 "2020-05-20T02:49:41Z")

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God bless her, and her husband, they don’t make em like that anymore.

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**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2020, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annie-glenn-has-died-she-was-100-wife-of-john-glenn-astronaut-us-marine/854115/8 "2020-05-20T03:59:32Z")

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In February I visited John Glenn’s grave at ANC, Arlington National Cemetery and took this video of his headstone \>\> [John Glenn’s grave, ANC — Arlington National Cemetery - Album on Imgur](https://imgur.com/gallery/MMTDlFJ).

The back of the headstone is blank, as it shows. Soon enough it’ll have Annie Glenn on it.

Like it does for Gus Grissom’s wife, Betty Lavonne, on the back of Gus’s headstone \>\> [Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee at ANC — Arlington National Cemetery. - Album on Imgur](https://imgur.com/gallery/9982OP7)

BTW, ANC has a very nice app where you look up gravesites of interest, and it’ll map them out and show your location relative to them. It helps you find them quickly.

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**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2020, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annie-glenn-has-died-she-was-100-wife-of-john-glenn-astronaut-us-marine/854115/9 "2020-05-20T04:26:42Z")

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Nice obit here, no paywall because it’s part of their COVID coverage:

> **[Annie Glenn, Champion of Those With Speech Disorders, Dies at 100 (Published...](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/19/us/annie-glenn-dead.html)**
>
> Being an astronaut’s wife thrust her into the spotlight, but a stutter left her struggling for words until she found help.

"In 1982, a reporter for The Globe asked Mr. Glenn, who was then considering a presidential run, whether marrying someone with such a severe stutter had given him pause.

“That never really made any difference,” he said. “I don’t know, maybe it was just that we grew up together with it, and I knew the person she was and loved the person she was, and that was that.”

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**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2020, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annie-glenn-has-died-she-was-100-wife-of-john-glenn-astronaut-us-marine/854115/10 "2020-05-20T04:26:56Z")

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> [@Bijou\_Drains](#):
>
> actress who played Mrs. Glenn in that scene only did a few movies. She’s the mother of Emily and Zooey Deschanel. LBJ was VP during that scene.

The Director of Photography for that scene was Caleb Deschanel, father of Emily and Zooey.

> [@Bullitt](#):
>
> Like it does for Gus Grissom’s wife, Betty Lavonne, on the back of Gus’s headstone \>\> [Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee at ANC — Arlington National Cemetery. - Album on Imgur](https://imgur.com/gallery/9982OP7)
> 
> BTW, ANC has a very nice app where you look up gravesites of interest, and it’ll map them out and show your location relative to them. It helps you find them quickly.

I went to Arlington about 20 years ago to look for Grissom’s and Chaffee’s graves. I had to ask at the visitor center and they told me which section to look in. It took a little while, and there was something peaceful and contemplative about not knowing exactly where to go and having to search a bit.

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**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annie-glenn-has-died-she-was-100-wife-of-john-glenn-astronaut-us-marine/854115/11 "2020-05-21T00:05:21Z")

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I never saw the movie, and didn’t realize she had speech difficulties. But that one scene in the movie makes me want to go out and get it to watch the whole thing. I wish all spouses supported their SO’s like that. Johnson, if he was protrayed accurately, was an asshole.

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**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annie-glenn-has-died-she-was-100-wife-of-john-glenn-astronaut-us-marine/854115/12 "2020-05-21T04:40:11Z")

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She did amazing things for others with speech difficulties. Thank you, Mrs. Glenn. Rest in peace.

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**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annie-glenn-has-died-she-was-100-wife-of-john-glenn-astronaut-us-marine/854115/13 "2020-05-21T12:46:09Z")

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> [@Robot\_Arm](#):
>
> I went to Arlington about 20 years ago to look for Grissom’s and Chaffee’s graves. I had to ask at the visitor center and they told me which section to look in. It took a little while, and there was something peaceful and contemplative about not knowing exactly where to go and having to search a bit.

I also searched for the Iwo Jima flag raisers, all who are buried there, and a few others. It was a nice, contemplative ‘walk through history’ way to spend a half day.

> [@carnut](#):
>
> She did amazing things for others with speech difficulties. Thank you, Mrs. Glenn. Rest in peace.

Yes she did. Thank you, Mrs. Glenn.
