RIP: Sally Ride, 61
She blazed a trail through the sky, shattering the NASA astronaut corps's glass ceiling.
Forty-two other USian women have followed her into space since her historic first flight, aboard Challenger, in 1983. Yet Ride wasn't only an astronaut. She was a physicist, an author, a onetime professor, and a fervent promoter of scientific and technical education.
She died at her home, in La Jolla, California, on Monday, July 23rd, after battling pancreatic cancer for 17 months. (That's a long time, in cancer years.) Besides her family -- including her longtime partner, Tam O'Shaughnessy; her mother, Joyce; her sister, Bear; a niece named Caitlin and a nephew named Whitney -- she is survived by her company, Sally Ride Science, and a host of starry-eyed girls ... of all ages.
lThere's a lovely elegy, She Walks in Light and Darkness by
ysabetwordsmith, which I would not have seen if not for
browngirl -- to both of whom, my thanks.
Thanks also to
dglenn, for finding and sharing a touching quotation from Bear Ride, who hopes her sister's example will help inspire the nation's LGBT youths to follow their dreams.
This entry is cross-posted from www.dreamwidth.org, where there are
comments. Comment where ye will.
Forty-two other USian women have followed her into space since her historic first flight, aboard Challenger, in 1983. Yet Ride wasn't only an astronaut. She was a physicist, an author, a onetime professor, and a fervent promoter of scientific and technical education.
She died at her home, in La Jolla, California, on Monday, July 23rd, after battling pancreatic cancer for 17 months. (That's a long time, in cancer years.) Besides her family -- including her longtime partner, Tam O'Shaughnessy; her mother, Joyce; her sister, Bear; a niece named Caitlin and a nephew named Whitney -- she is survived by her company, Sally Ride Science, and a host of starry-eyed girls ... of all ages.
lThere's a lovely elegy, She Walks in Light and Darkness by
ysabetwordsmith, which I would not have seen if not for
browngirl -- to both of whom, my thanks.
Thanks also to
dglenn, for finding and sharing a touching quotation from Bear Ride, who hopes her sister's example will help inspire the nation's LGBT youths to follow their dreams.
This entry is cross-posted from www.dreamwidth.org, where there are
comments. Comment where ye will.