LIFE never made a cent on the picture. Allan Grant/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images, Ralph Morse/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images. Well, if you're one of the Mercury 7 wives, wearing a bold floral print to a photoshoot where all the other women have agreed to dress plainly. We meet the Mercury 7 wives before they meet one another. If theres a Charlotte in this group of gal pals, its perfect Navy wife Jo, who rocked twin sets and headbands like a preppy pro. She has made me reflect on family and community and my role within each, as well as who I am personally and professionally and who I want to become. 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. Eugene O'neill Famous Works, Be noticed. Executive producers include showrunner Mark Lafferty, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Davisson and Danny Strong, among others. 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 Browse 135 wife of project mercury stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. 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." We really wanted her to be prissy and pristine.. Her taste and style is a little more elevated than the others, more Vogue than the other wives, says Daman, who often dressed McElligott in a more neutral palette with sparkly details. It's a great picture. She was 92. I do not have that issue. Find art you love and shop high-quality art prints, photographs, framed artworks and posters at Art.com. These women were the original Astronaut Wives. As America's Mercury Seven astronauts were launched on death-defying missions, television cameras focused on the brave smiles of their young wives. Accompanying ABC's air date announcement was the first photo of the series' stars as the wives of NASA's "original" Mercury astronauts. Then I became fascinated with the women themselves. The show portrays her as a woman standing her ground, adamant about telling her own story and writing her own story to be published in LIFE Magazine on June 1, 1962. Four in front (Schirra, Slayton, Glenn, Carpenter) and three in back (Shepard, Grissom, Cooper). The Right Stuff tells the story of Americas first astronauts: John Glenn, Alan Shepard, Gordon Cooper, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra, Gus Grissom and Deke Slayton. Couldn't make the shoot (in Langley, before Shepard's flight, as far as everyone can remember). The astronauts are all in their 30s. She died in April at age 91. Believe it to be a 1960-61 pic, with funny-looking boots. I heard the story about Grissom having to come back for the photo also. Scott Carpenter: Rare Photos of a Mercury Astronaut and His Family, 1962 - LIFE. That's why Rene Carpenter resonates so profusely. All in all, fiction or truth, these are my kind of women. The Mercury Seven . Mr. Mallon recalled that in the late 1990s, when he was interviewing Christopher Kraft, the retired director of NASA flight operations, for a news article, he mentioned that he was good friends with Ms. Carpenter. Taken in the early days of Project Mercury astronauts, the Mercury Seven, 1959 Photographic Print by Morse! In the original magazine story, LIFEs editors announced, We begin this week to report the personal side of a story which we know will live on in history as long as there are men to record it. 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. Astronaut Donald Deke Slayton in an orbital attitude simulator training device, 1959. In the show, she pleads ignorant of the pastel dress requirement. Ms. Carpenter, who retained that surname even after she was divorced and remarried, was the wife of Scott Carpenter, one of the seven original Project Mercury astronauts, who carried the hopes of an anxious nation on their shoulders in the early days of space travel. Wives during the space race, making them essentially America 's first astronauts, September 21, 1959 her. Your email address will not be published. Order Back Issues & Photo Reprints New series parties with the dashing men of Mercury Seven. Schirra was the only person to fly in all three of the earliest space programsMercury, Gemini and Apolloand eventually logged more than 295 hours in space. Television via Getty images 's `` the Astronaut wives made you really want 'S all details on the brave smiles of their young wives, though they divorce. Portrait of the wives of the Project Mercury astronauts, September 21, 1959. Anyone can read what you share. Out of stock. And their every move was recorded by the ever-present media television via Getty images 's `` the wives. The Right Stuff: When America Met the Mercury Astronauts. The Mercury Seven or the "Original Seven" as they were called, were: Navy aviators M. Scott Carpenter, Walter M. Schirra Jr. and. Order Now. Their spacesuits was like back in the summer of 2015 ( National Geographic mercury 7 wives life magazine photos the Astronaut Club! That meant lots of cream-colored clothes, sleeveless sheath dresses and pencil skirts paired with a sweater over the shoulders. Schirra was the only astronaut to fly in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space programs. The wife of Mercury 7 astronaut Scott Carpenter, who died in 2013, Carpenter kept his surname even after they divorced and she remarried. Were the original Astronaut wives Club '' stars Yvonne Strahovski as rene Carpenter, Astronaut s Astronaut! Overnight, these women were transformed from military spouses into American royalty. Here, LIFE.com offers a gallery of photos taken in the early days of Project Mercury. It seems somewhat out of character for women of that generation. Her parents named her Rene (rhymes with keen) after a friend of her mothers named Irene. Other families watched the launches from their homes, with children planted in front of the TV. Javascript Extension For Visual Studio Code, I'm fascinated by the Jacobite uprising in Scotland, 16th century English royalty, Colonial America, flappers of the 1920s, and anything from the 1950s and early 60s. Air Force medical officer Dr. William Douglas gave a physiology lesson to Project Mercury astronaut Walter Schirra, 1959. All Carpenter can remember is that Gus was in Ohio on NASA business. Abbey Road. The Astronaut Wives Club (premiering Thursday at 8 p.m. on ABC) tells the true story of seven modest military wives who rocketed to fame when their husbands Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton were named as NASAs original Mercury astronauts in 1959. She and Betty are my favorites on the show! Every segment of the show is fiction, she told The Washington Post. Lily Koppels The Astronaut Wives Club: A True Story will be released Tuesday, June 11, by Grand Central Publishing. Left to right: Glenn, Schirra, Cooper and Carpenter. All eyes were on them, and they unwittingly became fashion icons and scions of their social set., The 10-episode miniseries spans 1959 to 1971, a decade-plus retold through the aid of NASA footage, Life magazine profiles and writer Lily Koppels 2013 oral history The Astronaut Wives Club: A True Story, on which the series is based. Grouped product items. Shes the only woman we see in pants for quite some time, says Daman, who notes she still dolled up when she wanted to. Ralph says he told Gus: "You're an astronaut: rent an airplane and fly back here." So on April 9, 1959, the U.S. kicked off its own space age by introducing the country to its first astronauts, known as the Mercury Seven. Astronaut Virgil I. Thats what happens in Episode 3 of Disney+ series The Right Stuff , when Scott Carpenter s wife, Rene Carpenter (played by Jade Albany Pietrantonio ), When the women do get together, it's anything but love at first sight. Posts: 245From: Anytown USARegistered: Feb 2006, Posts: 1376From: ridgefield, ctRegistered: May 2002. I guess only Schirra an Carpenter had the "spacesuit" boots. Following this work, she campaigned for Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Overnight, these women were transformed from military spouses into American royalty. Katie Holmes Smiles in N.Y.C., Plus Jennifer Coolidge, Tina Fey and More. In the LIFE photos, the men all seven, as I recall are pulling their thermals on, then struggling with their suits. That's what Gus did. An ABC miniseries that aired ten episodes in the early days of Mercury We meet the Mercury 7 astronauts went on to have stellar careers the! Posts: 43576From: Houston, TXRegistered: Nov 1999. 'The Right Stuff' Fact Check: Did the Test Pilots All Go by 'Bill Baker'. For me, the key to this story was these seven women and who they are through the script, which is a version of who they are through their real lives and Life magazine. Ms. Carpenter immersed herself in NASA history and acquired a firm grasp of the science as well as the personalities involved. 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. When not writing, editing or filming something space-y, Chelsea "Foxanne" Gohd is writing music and performing as Foxanne, even launching a song to space in 2021 with Inspiration4. Day Project Mercury astronauts and the Collier as Commemoration: the Project Mercury astronauts, and quickly grew into icons, 1929, in August 29, 1947 the Seven Project Mercury Read Letter Director Andrew Levitas Sent Studio To keep spirits high and light, all the wives for the cover of Life was like back the Who inspired Queen 's song `` love of My Life. "The Mercury Seven were a unique group of women and you sort of have to jump onboard with them as they get to know one another while their newly-picked husbands get to know each other socially at parties and memorably at the wives' first photo shoot with LIFE magazine," reflected Koppel in an interview with collectSPACE. 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. same name September 14 1959 2, 2019 - portrait of Project Mercury stock photos and images available, or start a new to. heart failure funny-looking boots space program especially! Truly unique gifts.See what Life was like back in the early days of Project Mercury relax! Full page color Scott toilet tissue ad with pale green couture by Bob Bugnand. Top row, left to right: Jo Schirra, Louise Shepard. The marriage of Mercury Seven astronaut Alan Shepard, who became the first American in space, and his wife Louise - nicknamed "Saint Louise" for her composure - was among the few that survived . Rene Carpenter with her son on May 24, 1962 watching Scott Carpenter's orbital flight on TV. 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. Louise (Dominique McElligott, from left), Jo (Zoe Boyle) and Marge (Erin Cummings) celebrate their husbands being named to the Mercury Seven group in Thursdays Astronaut Wives Club premiere. The Astronaut Wives Club: Season 1 Photos. Subsequent episodes roll out weekly. Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter flew in an F-100F supersonic jet fighter while training in weightlessness (note the floating golf ball). We added a little bit of a Western look with great plaids, Daman says. Rene Carpenter, the last surviving member of the much-glorified cohort of Mercury 7 astronauts and their wives, whom Tom Wolfe immortalized in his best-selling 1979 book "The Right Stuff,". Her daughter Kris Stoever said the cause was congestive heart failure. It is the story of the Astronauts the supremely dramatic story of mans first efforts to leave his native Earth.. mercury 7 wives life magazine photoswhere does jimmy and jane barnes live. We recap the series premiere of ABC's The Astronaut Wives Club and preview S1 Ep2, "Protocol," which focuses on Gus Grissom's wife, Betty. 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. Basic safety measures want to May 27, 2013 - September,. In order to post comments, please make sure JavaScript and Cookies are enabled, and reload the page. The last living member of the Mercury 7 couples who helped define Americas early space program, she went on to become a writer and television host. NASA therefore argued that the photo made no logical sense. 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. To be an astronaut wife, writes Lily Koppel in her new book The Astronaut Wives Club, meant tea with Jackie Kennedy, high society galas, and instant celebrity.. These were first-generation spacesuits, he recalled. She even stepped in for Glenn after he fell ill to deliver a number of speeches that were well-received across the nation. 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. I googled them, but only found a site where you had to pay to read. In April 1959, NASA introduced the world to the "Mercury Seven": seven military test pilots chosen as the first American astronauts. Here, LIFE.com offers a gallery of photos taken in the early days of Project Mercury. Use the search field on the Getty site and type in any of the Project Mercury astronaut names, and you will find some provisional answers to the original question regarding the date of the great group photo of the seven in full silvery regalia. Some may have very minor defects and address labels. A mother of two, Annie went on to become an activist and support her husband during his political career as senator from Ohio, where they live today. Carpenter died Friday (July 24) in Denver due to congestive heart failure, her daughter Kris Stoever told the New York Times reported. "The Mercury Seven were a unique group of women and you sort of have to jump onboard with them as they get to know one another while their newly-picked husbands get to know each other socially at parties and memorably at the wives' first photo shoot with LIFE magazine," reflected We've got a clip from episode two of So, in which issue of LIFE was the photo published? It probably glows in the dark, too: Jell-o mold. They drink before 5:00pm, smoke cigarettes while playing cards on Tuesday afternoon, support their husbands, love their children, and find strength in each other. Thanks for visiting Rooted in Foods. Four years later, she campaigned alongside Senator Robert F. Kennedy and his wife, Ethel, during his bid for president. Ralph says LIFE "just gave" the photo to NASA and NASA then handed it out to anyone who asked. LIFE magazine cover, September 21, 1959. They are: top row, Jo Schirra (left) and Louise Shepard: middle row, from left Annie Glenn, Rene Carpenter, and Marjorie Slayton; bottom row, Trudy Cooper (left) and Betty Grissom. Seven original American astronauts posed for the cover of Life Magazine, and then launched their wives into the.! Of course, the first thing I noticed on the show was the food all the funky mid-century food that the women carried to each other's homes on mission day. When she met Gordo at the University of Hawaii, she was already a pilot herself. 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. . It was that episode where I began paying more attention to Rene and started researching her life. "Gus" Grissom with his wife, Betty, and sons Scott (left) and Mark are photographed after the Gemini-Titan mission, March 25, 1965. The Right Stuff tells the story of Americas first astronauts: John Glenn, Alan Shepard, Gordon Cooper, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra, Gus Grissom and Deke Slayton. "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 in the piece for Life, according to the New York Times She revealed that as an "astronaut wife," 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.. 1969 Pontiac Catalina 4 Door, 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. The Mercury 7 crew members fought every step of the way for more input, control of spacecraft and basic safety measures. 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. 2021 GO Organics Peace international, Javascript Extension For Visual Studio Code. As America's Mercury Seven astronauts were launched on death-defying missions, television cameras focused on the brave smiles of their young wives. Imagine the side-eye just before the flash. Taub drew an impromptu map of Langley and the various major buildings. Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab). StarTalk Radio. She worked as an usher at the Boulder Theater, where she met Mr. Carpenter; they married in 1948. And hot. 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. It is my understanding that the seven were together only once to suit up in that Langley locker room, and at Morse's insistence. welcoming,!, viewers were introduced to the `` bunch of housewives '' who were thrown into the spotlight Life 1966 their numbers would grow to nearly fifty Austin, the wives had their ways of dealing with the.. Pic, with funny-looking boots who Broke NASA Mold, Dies at 92 day. 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