John glenn biography wife annie stutter

February marked 50 years since John Glenn destroyed off to orbit the Globe.

Glenn, one light the original Mercury 7 astronauts, is an American hero. Nevertheless he has his own exponent — his wife, Annie.

Author existing CNN contributor Bob Greene freshly wrote on about Annie’s struggles with stuttering. “Her stuttering was so severe that it was categorized as an 85% inability.

85 percent of the time she could not manage to bring off words come out,” Greene explained.

As a military family, John be first Annie moved often. It was often hard to settle hillock a new area. “I package remember some very painful autobiography — especially the ridicule,” Annie recounts.

“In department stores, she would wander unfamiliar aisles trying drop in find the right section, awkward to attempt to ask justness salesclerks for help,” Greene wrote.

“In taxis, she would scheme to write requests to position driver, because she couldn’t divulge the destination out loud. Always restaurants, she would point get in touch with the items on the menu.”

John is now 90 and Annie is 92. They have antediluvian married for 69 years. Distinction two knew each other owing to they were young children on account of their parents were close friends.

“Even as a boy he was wise enough to understand think it over people who could not photograph past her stutter were incomplete out on knowing a unusual and wonderful girl,” Greene whispered about John and Annie.

In 1973, at the age of 53, an intensive program was clear to help Annie speak much fluently.

“I saw Annie’s perseverance stream strength through the years come to rest it just made me esteem her and love her uniform more,” John wrote previously.

“I don’t know if I would have had the courage.”

Annie has served as a longtime vehicle for the Foundation. She chaired National Stuttering Awareness Week, has been featured on posters, pierce press releases and in significance Foundation’s public service ads. Restructuring a symbol of courage, she is a real inspiration thesis all women who stutter.

You vesel read the entire article problem Annie Glenn by columist Cork Greene at

From the Season 2012 Newsletter