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The Riveting Rosies The Women of Mercury 13 - The Riveting Rosies
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The Women of Mercury 13

The Riveting Rosies Podcast

14 Feb, 2023

The Women of Mercury 13

The Women of Mercury 13

This week on the podcast, we’re continuing our conversation on Mercury 13.  If you haven’t listened to Ep. 51 yet, make sure you do that first, then jump back into this episode.

Mercury 13, also known as First Lady Astronaut Trainees (FLATs), were thirteen women selected for a privately funded program to select and train women to travel into space. 

Today we’re covering each member of the FLATs in this jam-packed episode, so grab your tea & settle in for an amazing review of the Mercury 13.

Myrtle Cagle

Myrtle K. Thompson Cagle was born on June 3, 1925.  When she was 14 years old she earned her wings and thus became the youngest pilot in the state of North Carolina, possibly the entire United States.

In high school, she joined the Aeronautics class, but unfortunately the class instructor was drafted into World War II. So Myrtle finished the school year as the instructor of the course. She earned her private pilot’s license at age 19, and soon after joined the Civic Air Patrol and the 99s. 

In 1961, Myrtle was asked to participate in the new women in Space Program. At this time she had already logged 4,300 hours of flying time so she was a natural choice for the program.

After Mercury 13, Myrtle returned to flight instructing and also enrolled at Mercer University. she continued her involvement in the Civic Air Patrol and competed in the international women’s air race in 1964. Myrtle is noted to continue flying well into her 70s, even after she retired from flight instruction. She was inducted into the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame in 2003. Myrtle died at the age of 94 in 2019.

Jerrie Cobb

Geraldine “Jerrie” M. Cobb was born on March 5, 1931 in Norman, Oklahoma.  She first flew at age 12, and at age 16 she was barnstorming around the Midwest.  When she was 17, she earned her private pilot’s license and received her commercial pilot’s license at age 18.

In her twenties, Jerrie set three Aviation records and became the first woman to fly in the Paris Air Show.  When she was 28 years old, Jerrie became a pilot & manager for Aerodesign and Engineering Company, making her one of the few women executives in the aviation industry.

 In 1961, NASA appointed Jerrie as a Space Program consultant.  Jerrie completed all three stages of the physical and psychological evaluations that were used to select the first Mercury astronauts – her scores placed her in the top 2% of all astronaut candidates.  Unfortunately, this was not an official NASA program, & Jerry could not gather enough support in Congress to officially add women to the astronaut program.

In 1962 Jerry testified in a congressional hearing about women astronauts, but sexist John Glenn stated that “men go off and fight the wars and fly the airplanes”, and “the fact that women are not in this field is a fact of our social order.”  Just a couple months later the Soviet Union sent the first woman into space.

After her Mercury 13 involvement, Jerry was heavily involved in missionary work to South America, often transporting supplies and surveying new air travel routes. Jerry is known for pioneering various routes across the Andes Mountains and the rainforest of the Amazons, and she was even nominated for the 1981 Nobel Peace Prize for her work

Jerry campaigned with the National Organization for Women in 1999 to study the effects of weightlessness on the aging body, similar to what John Glenn did.  NASA declined, stating they didn’t want any senior citizens not named John Glenn.

Jerry received numerous Aviation Awards and was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2012.  She died on March 18, 2019 at 88 years old.

Janet & Marion Dietrich

Janet Dietrich & Marion Dietrich were identical twin sisters born in 1926. The sisters began flying at early ages and were the only girls in their high school aviation class.

The sisters entered the inaugural Chico to San Mateo Air Race in 1947 and won first place, much to the chagrin of their experienced male pilot counterparts. The twins continued to fly together, earning second place in the 1951 all women’s transcontinental race.  In 1960, the twins were selected for the Mercury 13 program and underwent testing at the Lovelace clinic in Albuquerque 

After Mercury 13, Marion Dietrich passed away in 1974 from cancer. Janet ended her flying career after her sister passed away, & she died at 81 years old in 2008.

Wally Funk

Mary Wallace Funk was born February 1, 1939. She grew up in New Mexico and was obsessed with planes.  She started making planes out of balsa wood at age 7 and she had her first flying lesson when she was 9 years old. 

After earning her associate’s degree, she enrolled at Oklahoma State University and joined the Flying Aggies program, earning many awards.   When she was 20, she began working as a civilian flight instructor for the United States Army and became the first woman flight instructor on a US military base.

Wally volunteered for the Women in Space Program in 1961, and although she was younger than the recruited age range, she still got to participate. On some of the physical and psychological evaluations, she scored higher than John Glenn.

After Mercury 13, Wally applied to NASA three times and was rejected each time because she did not have an engineering degree or test pilot experience. but this didn’t stop Wally. On July 20, 2021, Wally flew on the Blue Origin New Shepard flight at the age of 82, becoming the oldest person to fly in space at the time.

 Wally still lives in Grapevine, Texas and may still be flying as an instructor. 

Sarah Gorelick (later Ratley)

Sarah Gorelick Ratley was born August 30, 1933. She learned to fly when she was 16 and went on to race in the Powder Puff Derby and even did tours with the 99s women’s pilot group. She earned her Bachelor’s of Science in math from the University of Denver and minored in physics, chemistry, and aeronautics. 

After Mercury 13, she went to work at the Internal Revenue Service as an accountant and received her honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Wisconsin in 2007. She died March 17, 2020.

Jane “Janey” Briggs Hart

Jane “Janey” Briggs Hart was born October 21, 1921.  Janie was raised in Detroit, then attended Manhattanville College in New York. She married Philip Hart in 1943, & they had nine children together (one died at a very young age).

Philip was very involved in politics, and Janie was very active in his political campaigns, even flying him to various campaign stops.

In the early 1960s, she participated in the Women in Space Program and qualified at the age of 40.

Janey was a founding member of the National Organization for Women and actively opposed the Vietnam War, even opposing some of her husband’s political stances. However the couple were fiercely supportive of each other, even if they did not always agree politically.

Janey was inducted into the Michigan’s Hall of Fame in 2007, and she died of Alzheimer’s complications on June 5, 2015. 

Jean Hixson

Jean Hickson was born September 30, 1922 in Hoopeston, Illinois. She began flying lessons when she was 16, and by 18, she earned her pilot’s license. Shortly after, she began training with the Women’s Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs) and even flew B25s as a test pilot during World War II. Following World War II, she was a flight instructor in Akron, Ohio and also earned her Elementary and secondary education degree from Akron University.

When she was 35 years old, Jean became the second woman to exceed Mach 1.

After Mercury 13, she retired from the Air Force Reserves as a colonel in 1982 and also led a WASP reunion in that same year. She died on September 21, 1984 from cancer.

Rhea Woltman

Rhea Waltman was born November 6, 1928. She grew up in Minnesota in a family of six children. Even from an early age, she always desired to fly. Rhea attended St. Cloud Teachers’ College after high school, and moved to Texas where she started training to become a pilot.

She started first as a private pilot, then moved to a commercial pilot, and even earned her seaplane rating and her glider pilot rating. She often raced, including the International Women’s Air Race and the Powder Puff Race, and completed a solo flight on a plane with floats from Houston to Anchorage.

Not much is known about her post-Mercury 13 career, but we do know that she retired her pilot’s license in 2014. The University of Wisconsin awarded Rhea an honorary doctorate in 2007, and she was inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame the next year. She died February 15, 2021 at the age of 92. 

Gene Nora Stumbough (later Jessen)

Gene Nora Stumbough Jessen was born in 1937 in Chicago. She began flying while in high school, and even joined the Civic Air Patrol as a high school student.  She later attended Oklahoma University, where she was also noted to play the cello in the school’s orchestra. In 1959, Jean became the first woman flight instructor at OU; she was also still a college student at this time.

She graduated from OU in 1961 and the same year went to the Women in Space Program, after finding out about this program from Wally Funk.  

In 1962, Gene began working for Beechcraft and moved to Boise, Idaho with husband Bob, where they ran their own beechcraft dealership.

Gene was appointed by President LBJ to the FAA women’s advisory committee, also serving as the president of the 99s between 1988 and 1990. She earned her honorary doctorate from University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in 2007. Gene only stopped flying in 2017, when macular degeneration forced her hand. Gene wrote and published a book in 2018 called Sky Girls. 

Irene Leverton

Irene Leverton was born March 3, 1927.  Irene is noted to have begun her flying career at the age of 17 in 1944 and continued a very active career until retiring in 2011.  An active member of the 99s, she was selected for the Women in Space Program.

 After Mercury 13, she graduated from San Jose State College in 1976.  She settled in Prescott Arizona and founded her business Aviation Resource Management in 1985.

During her Aviation career, Irene was a pilot, a flight instructor, and a check pilot.  Irene died on July 23, 2017 at the age of 90.

Jerri Sloan (later Truhill)

Geraldine “Jerri” Hamilton Sloan Truhill was born November 12, 1929. She showed an early interest in aviation but was unfortunately discouraged from pursuing a career in aviation due to the rampant sexism during this era. 

However this did not stop Jerri.  At 15, she began taking flying lessons without her parents’ knowledge or approval.

This experience must not have swayed Jerri because, as we know, she was definitely a flying legend. Jerri worked with her husband Joe for Texas Instruments Incorporated.

Jerri Truhill was called up by good friend Jerrie Cobb in 1961 to recruit her for the Women in Space Program.

 After Mercury 13, Jerri and her husband Joe bought a P-51 Mustang, even did a little modeling in a pink lycra flight suit.  The couple settled in Richardson where Jerry lived until her death on November 18, 2013.

Bernice Steadman

Bernice Trimble Steadman was born July 9, 1925. Tragically when she was one year old, her father and siblings were killed in a house fire. 

After graduating from Flint Central High School in Michigan, she worked at AC spark plug to save money for flying lessons. She even got her pilot’s license before she even got her driver’s license. 

After working as a charter pilot, she opened her own flight school and charter company called Trimble Aviation. Bernice was one of the first women to earn an airline transport rating in the United States – this is one of the highest ratings that a pilot can receive apparently.

 Bernice also served on the FAA’s Women Advisory Committee.  Bernice published her autobiography in 2001, which covered much of her experience on Mercury 13 as well as LBJ’s efforts to stop the Women in Space Program.  In 2002, she was inducted into the Michigan Aviation Hall of Fame and in 2003 she was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame.  

Bernice died when she was 89 years old in 2015 of Alzheimer’s disease complications. She and her husband Robert were married for 56 years. 

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