Page 84 - Lunacy and the Age of Deception

was reached to sue for compensation, she hired Houston attorney Ronald T. Krist. On behalf of Betty
Grissom and the other deceased astronauts’ wives, Krist sued North American Aviation, the primary
contractor responsible for building the command module. Krist sued for ten million. In the end Betty
Grisssom was awarded $350,000, and the other astronauts’ wives were awarded $125,000 each. Gus
Grissom’s wife stated she would not have even been able to send her two sons to college had not her
husband’s alma mater, Purdue University, given them both scholarships.

Pat White, the widow of Apollo 1 astronaut Ed White, took an overdose of pills after his death. The
news was kept from the public. She survived and went on to remarry, but reportedly committed
suicide in 1991.

Astronaut Roger Chaffee with Wife Margaret and Children

After the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986, People Magazine published an interview with
Margaret Chaffee who was 27 years old when her husband died. Nineteen years later she related the
following.

The children and I were at our home near Houston when it happened. I remember it vividly. You put
it in the back of your mind, but you never forget. It was around 7 o'clock in the evening. I had fed
the children when some astronaut wives came to my house. I knew something was going on, but I
thought, "It can't be anything terrible," because Roger wasn't flying. He was just involved in tests
and training. I had never even thought of the possibility that there might be some sort of accident
while they were on the ground.

When NASA sent astronaut Mike Collins to our house a little later, I knew it was something terrible.
I told him, "Mike, I think I know, but I have to hear it." He said they had been killed. He didn't say
exactly what happened. I found that out over the next couple of days through the news reports. Later
on NASA sent me a full report of the investigation.

I knew I had to tell my children. By then the security people had arrived, and there were a lot of
people at the house. I tried to explain to them that something had happened to their daddy, and he
wouldn't be coming home. That was the hardest. I don't think they really knew what death was. I
didn't even use the word. It was too final for me at the time. The children cried because I was crying,