Betty Lavonne Grissom (née Moore; August 8, 1927 – October 7, 2018) was the plaintiff in a successful lawsuit against a

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

contractor which established a precedent for families of astronauts killed in service to receive compensation. Her husband

Gus Grissom Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom (April 3, 1926 – January 27, 1967) was an American engineer, pilot in the United States Air Force, and member of the Mercury Seven selected by National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) as Project Mercur ...

, one of the

Mercury Seven The Mercury Seven were the group of seven astronauts selected to fly spacecraft for Project Mercury. They are also referred to as the Original Seven and Astronaut Group 1. Their names were publicly announced by NASA on April 9, 1959; these seve ...

astronauts, died in the first fatal accident in the history of the United States space program.Katharine Q. Seelye
"Betty Grissom, Who Sued in Astronaut Husband’s Death, Dies at 91,"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', October 11, 2018."Says NASA, Space Firms 'Don't Care' : Grissom Widow Offers Advice--Sue,"
''

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

'', January 20, 1987. Ms. Grissom has been portrayed in the books '' The Right Stuff'' (1979) by

Tom Wolfe Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely ...

and ''

The Astronaut Wives Club ''The Astronaut Wives Club'' is a 2015 American period drama television series developed by Stephanie Savage for ABC. It is based on Lily Koppel's 2013 book of the same name. The series tells the story of the wives of the Mercury Seven—America ...

'' (2013) by

Lily Koppel Lily Koppel (born 1981) is a writer living in New York City. She is known for her books '' The Red Leather Diary'' (2008) and ''The Astronaut Wives Club'' (2013). Career Koppel writes for ''The New York Times'' and other publications. She gradu ...

and by the actors

Veronica Cartwright Veronica Cartwright (born April 20, 1949) is a British-American actress. She is known for appearing in science fiction and horror films, and has earned numerous accolades, including three Primetime Emmy Award nominations. As a child actress, sh ...

and

JoAnna Garcia JoAnna García Swisher (''née'' García; born August 10, 1979) is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Sam in ''Are You Afraid of the Dark?'' (1994–96), Vicki Appleby in ''Freaks and Geeks'' (1999–2000), and Cheyenne Hart-Mo ...

in the film and television adaptations of those books.Eric Benson
"No Honeymoon Lily Koppel's 'Astronaut Wives Club',"
''

'', July 19, 2013.

Early life

Betty Lavonne Moore was born in 1927 in

Mitchell, Indiana Mitchell is a city in Marion Township, Lawrence County, Indiana, United States. The population was 4,350 at the 2010 census. History Mitchell was built as a railroad town in the mid-19th century. At this location in Lawrence County, the Chi ...

to Claude and Pauline (née Sutherlin) Moore. Her father worked at a cement plant. She met Gus Grissom when she was a freshman and he was a sophomore in high school. The two were married in 1945. Grissom worked as a late-night telephone operator for Indiana Bell while her husband studied mechanical engineering at Purdue University.Mary C. Zornio
"Virgil Ivan 'Gus' Grissom," Nasa.gov
retrieved October 21, 2018. Gus was selected as an astronaut after flying over a hundred combat missions in Korea. He became one of the Mercury Seven and was the second American in space.
''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', October 10, 2018. Betty Grissom formed the

Astronaut Wives Club The Astronaut Wives Club was an informal support group of women, sometimes called Astrowives, whose husbands were members of the Mercury 7 group of astronauts. The group included Annie Glenn, Betty Grissom, Louise Shepard, Trudy Cooper, Marge Sl ...

along with the wives of the other Mercury 7 astronauts, to support one another while their husbands prepared for and achieved spaceflight.

Husband's death and aftermath

On January 27, 1967, Gus Grissom, along with fellow astronauts

Roger Chaffee Roger Bruce Chaffee (; February 15, 1935 – January 27, 1967) was an American naval officer, aviator and aeronautical engineer who was a NASA astronaut in the Apollo program. Chaffee was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he became an Eag ...

and Ed White, died when an electrical fire engulfed the

Apollo 1 Apollo 1, initially designated AS-204, was intended to be the first crewed mission of the Apollo program, the American undertaking to land the first man on the Moon. It was planned to launch on February 21, 1967, as the first low Earth orbita ...

command module during testing at the

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...

in Florida. When Ms. Grissom received the news she said that she had "already died 100,000 deaths" being married to an astronaut.Lily Koppel
"50 Years After Apollo Disaster, Memorial for 3 Men, and for Era,"
''

'', January 28, 2017. Investigations concluded that the "most probable" cause of the fire was an electrical spark that set ablaze flammable insulation in the capsule, exacerbated by the pure oxygen atmosphere."GRISSOM'S WIDOW ASKS $10‐MILLION," Archived
via the

TimesMachine ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

,''

'', January 19, 1971. Escape was prevented by a plug hatch that was impossible to open against the above-atmospheric pressure inside the cabin. These design flaws were fixed by NASA before the next crewed mission. In 1971 Grissom filed a $10 million wrongful death lawsuit against the Apollo program's prime contractor, North American Rockwell. In 1972, she settled for $350,000, which adjusted for inflation, would be worth nearly $3 million in 2018. As a result of her legal action the widows of Chaffee and White received $125,000 apiece. Following the ''Challenger'' explosion of 1986, Grissom encouraged the families of crew members killed in the incident to file lawsuits. Grissom's lawyer, Ronald D. Krist, went on to represent Cheryl McNair, widow of astronaut Ronald McNair, in her lawsuit against Morton Thiokol, the manufacturer of the

solid rocket booster A solid rocket booster (SRB) is a large solid propellant motor used to provide thrust in spacecraft launches from initial launch through the first ascent. Many launch vehicles, including the Atlas V, SLS and space shuttle, have used SRBs to give ...

blamed for the ''Challenger'' accident. In 1984, Grissom and the six surviving Mercury 7 astronauts created the Mercury 7 Foundation, later renamed the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, which provides scholarships for science and engineering students."History,"astronautscholarship.org
retrieved October 21, 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grissom, Betty 1927 births 2018 deaths People from Mitchell, Indiana Apollo 1

Betty Betty or Bettie is a name, a common diminutive for the names Bethany and Elizabeth. In Latin America, it is also a common diminutive for the given name Beatriz, the Spanish and Portuguese form of the Latin name Beatrix and the English name Beat ...

Burials at Arlington National Cemetery