Page 28 - World Airnews Magazine March 2021

WOMEN IN WOMEN IN
AVIATION AVIATION

BARRIER-BREAKING TEXAS every class, especially math and science, and Centre in Florida watching the sudden and hometown, the way the picturesque hills
Her mother was at the Kennedy Space
and streams lined the Brazos River.
seemed to conquer anything she put her
mind to. She managed to get all of her high unexpected tragedy in person. She told her what it was like to see
school credits by the time she was 16.

Hughes-Fulford's launch slated for May
ASTRONAUT DIES AT 75 State University, graduate school at Texas 1991 was delayed one last time due to lightning storms from space, how it looked
like cobwebs "stretching across entire

She went on to college at Tarleton

continents," Abernathy said.
concerns over equipment, and Herzog was

Women's University and in 1972 became unable to get the time off of work to see it During one phone conversation last fall,

By Jack Howland from the a postdoctoral fellow at Southwestern in person. But she witnessed her safe return she recalled they talked about how the

Star-Telegram, in Fort Worth, USA Medical School in Dallas, where she started to Earth, as well as the warm reception she only geo-political border visible from space
that's not water is the Great Wall of China.
received in the coming days and weeks.
her career of medical research. She also
spent about 14 years as a member of the Mineral Wells hosted a Millie Hughes- "Visiting with Millie was like that,"

US Army Reserve Medical Corps. Fulford Day that year that featured a couple Abernathy said. "She always enhanced your
Cleveland recalled in the early 1980s of crowded galas where she was honoured point of view."
illie Hughes-Fulford, a bar- when she was picked to be part of the and presented with a key to the city. Herzog was with her mother for the past
Mrier-breaking astronaut and NASA space programme. Hughes-Fulford She hung out with Cleveland, her 11 months as they avoided COVID, stuck
scientific researcher whose passion for couldn't contain her excitement about the childhood friend, and requested they do together "in a bubble," she said.

space was formed as a child in Mineral daunting challenge ahead of her. something they hadn't done since they were The mother and daughter would fill their

Wells looking up at the stars, died recently "Back then, girls didn't have an kids - have a slumber party and talk all night. days by going on long car rides or taking
following a seven-year battle with cancer, opportunity to do those things," Cleveland "I got to visit with her for a long time," up tasks like cleaning out Hughes-Fulford's

her daughter said. She was 75 years old. said. "But she dreamed about it, and then Cleveland said. "I asked her if she was ever cluttered garage. They went on a trip to the

Hughes-Fulford shattered a glass ceiling her dream became a reality." afraid. She said no." zoo once when it opened back up. Hughes-

in 1991 when she became the first female Hughes-Fulford moved her family to The nine-day flight, which brought Fulford liked to keep her mind active all the

payload specialist to fly in space for Houston in the August of 1984 so she could Hughes-Fulford attention and praise, was time. They were together, every day, until

NASA, launching into orbit on the shuttle begin her training, getting her body ready far from the end of her time with NASA. She Hughes-Fulford died. The loss has been

Columbia as part of the first-ever mission for the intense g-force of the launch and oversaw several experiments that went to hard on her family, who knew this would

dedicated to biomedical studies, STS-40. the lack of gravity in space. It was a big the International Space Station, focused on be coming someday due to her diagnosis

In the specialised role, dedicated to time commitment. medical topics such as the impact of space but are still having trouble coming to terms
conducting on-board research, the trained Herzog recalled her mother was so on bone cell growth, according to NASA. She with her absence. Herzog was able to

chemist helped complete more than 18 busy she hardly had time for anything but and colleagues in 2013 demonstrated for note that her mother has finally stopped

experiments over a nine-day period, training, though she checked in every day the first time that microgravity was the root working for a second.

gathering more medical data than any over the phone. She taught her daughter, cause of failing T-cells, the white blood cells "She always said, 'I'm going to retire,' and

mission up to that point. She circled the then 16 years old, to copy her signature that offer immune defence. I was like, 'Yeah, I'll believe it when I see

earth 146 times. perfectly so she could sign forms for school Friends of hers from North Texas said her it,'" Herzog said, laughing.
Her daughter and only child, Tori Herzog, herself, Herzog said with a laugh. career based in California didn't cause her Herzog said the family had not made

53, was fresh out of college, and said she She said she knew why her mother had to to lose ties to her hometown, where her plans for a funeral service due to the

remembers having to go to her friend's work, and felt she been raised by a mother parents owned a grocery store and later difficulties with COVID – at the time
house in order to view NASA's feed of video who wanted her to be independent. her mother was a school teacher. of going to press. They said that they

clips from inside the shuttle. She was there But it wasn't always easy to have a mother Lela J. Abernathy, a long-time friend from intended on putting a headstone in

for the landing in Edwards AFB, California, as an astronaut, like when she watched Palo Pinto, said in a Facebook message she Woodland Park Cemetery in Mineral

USA when she helped her mother the Challenger shuttle explode into streaks kept up with Hughes-Fulford despite the Wells, where her parents are buried. They
walk because her wobbly legs weren't of smoke and debris on TV on January 28, distance. Hughes-Fulford would always will spread her ashes on the ground, as
accustomed to the gravity. 1986. She later learned the ill-fated rocket bring something special to their phone she wanted.

In the years following the landmark booster on the Challenger, which had crucial conversations - whether it was telling her In lieu of flowers, the family is asking

achievement, Hughes-Fulford would tell flaws in its O-ring seals, would have been the right way to harvest an apricot, or for donations to Stand Up To Cancer. For

her daughter all about what was like to Seven years ago, Hughes-Fulford, who had Her death was met with an outpouring of used on Hughes-Fulford's mission had it not how cellular biology relates to the COVID further information go to www.star-
look down at the earth from miles above, settled down in San Francisco, was diagnosed tributes on social media from those in the been delayed from its original launch date. pandemic. She spoke lovingly of her telegram.com. Q

to float weightlessly from one end of the with mantle cell lymphoma and was told she scientific community who knew the impact

shuttle to the other. It was awkward at might live another two years. She defied the of her thought-provoking work and how

first, she told her, but she got faster, and odds to "steal an extra five years," Herzog her role with NASA inspired a generation of

it became easier to glide through the said, during which time she travelled the young girls and boys.

tight corridors. She was caught once by world with her daughter and continued her The death was also felt in Mineral

NASA cameras flipping in the research lab, research at the University of California San Wells, where friends recalled her wit and

carefree, as she listened to music. Francisco until her death. Her final published penchant for spontaneous adventure, and

Hughes-Fulford would describe the take- paper was on non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. the drive she possessed at a young age that

off, on the other hand, like sitting still as a She leaves behind Herzog; her first foreshadowed her illustrious career.

bomb went off underneath you. husband, Rick Wiley; her sister, Gail Frances Cleveland, a 75-year-old former

"She says her heart rate never went up," Shewmake; and two granddaughters. classmate who still lives in the small town

Herzog said during a telephone interview. Her family is mourning a role model who about an hour outside of Fort Worth, was
"It was something that she was just so inspired them not only by what she did but close friends with Hughes-Fulford and five

ready for." how she did it, with a lack of ego and a love other girls at Mineral Wells High School.

The dream of becoming an astronaut of education. The "big six," as they called themselves,

struck Hughes-Fulford as a kid transfixed by "She's always lifted people up on her enjoyed passing the time by hiking in the

the space adventures of "Buck Rogers" on shoulder," Herzog said of her mother. "A lot winding hills of Palo Pinto County or driving
her family's small black-and-white TV. But of people are coming to me and telling me Hughes-Fulford's car over the spillway at
she also grew up with a love of learning that that because of her they are where they are, Lake Mineral Wells.
pushed her to become a researcher in fields because they didn't think they could do it, Of the close-knit group, the future

like medicine and biology, publishing works because they were a girl, or because they astronaut was perhaps the most driven, but
that probed why the human body behaves just weren't good enough. She was always Cleveland said it was a "gracious driven." She

the way it does under certain conditions. the one that said, 'You are good enough.'" was the friend who was quietly excelling in
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