The Spaceport News continued to discuss unconventional women in technical fields,
showing that more women were entering such occupations, but it still emphasized their
femininity and attempted to relate their occupations to the traditional woman’s sphere. Some
examples of this are the headlines “Meet LOC’s Likeable Lady Lawyer”,
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“Spaceport’s Prettiest
Civil Engineer Enjoys Varied Challenges of Her Job”,
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“Feminine Touch, Hard Work Spell
Success”,
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and “Cherie Likes Math, Music.”
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These headlines indicate the social ideals of the
time regarding female employees. They were accepted in technical occupations but still
expected to be feminine – they were women first, workers second.
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In articles about female
technical workers, Spaceport News also discussed their hobbies, such as sewing and cooking, to
appeal to readers.
In 1967, NASA suffered a tremendous loss when the Apollo 1 crew was killed during a
plugs-out test, or a dress rehearsal for their upcoming launch, on January 27, 1967. A spark
caused the cabin, pressurized with one hundred percent pure oxygen, to go up in flames, and the
three astronauts -- Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chafee -- died from asphyxiation. NASA
and its contractors spent the next year and half fixing the Apollo capsule and preparing for the
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Spaceport News, 20 June 1963, 4. Kennedy Space Center was named the Launch Operations Center until
after President Kennedy’s assassination in November, 1963. It was renamed a week after his death. Sue
Weissenegger was an attorney for KSC.
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Spaceport News, 25 February 1965, 4. Jeannette Denny worked in the Planning and Resources Office.
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Spaceport News, 11 April 1968, 3.
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Spaceport News, 18 July 1968, 7. Cherie Lee was employed in the Automation and Programming
Office, Launch Vehicle Operations. She worked in the Vehicle Assembly Building and when asked if it was a
man’s world inside, she responded negatively and said that there are two women engineers in her office.
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Women workers during World War II also received similar treatment as female technical workers at KSC
during the 1960s and 1970s. The press was curious about women workers, but instead of writing about their talents,
they wrote about subjects deemed readable by the public, such as women’s uniforms. Pamela Freni, Space For
Women: A History of Women with the Right Stuff (Santa Ana, CA: Seven Locks Press, 2002), 7.
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