Katherine Johnson Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Fall Foliage Comes Early And A Decrease In Overdose Deaths, This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, leaves are already beginning to change color after a dry hot summer and three are indicted in the neglect death of a Boone County girl.

On this West Virginia Morning, leaves are already beginning to change color after a dry hot summer. Briana Heaney sat down with New River Gorge National Park Ranger Eve West to discuss what this year’s fall will look like in the park.

Also Katherine Johnson, along with her Hidden Figures colleagues, were honored by Congress Wednesday.

And, indictments in the neglect death of a Boone County girl, fire season starts early in the New River Gorge National Park and overdose deaths decrease.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University and Marshall University School of Journalism and Mass Communications.

Maria Young produced this episode.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

A W.Va. ‘Hidden Figure’ Receives Congressional Gold Medal

Katherine Johnson and her NASA colleagues were the subject of a book and a film. President Barack Obama awarded her a Medal of Freedom in 2015.

Katherine Johnson, born in White Sulphur Springs in 1918, became one of NASA’s Hidden Figures – the Black women who performed the mathematical calculations that launched America into space.

Johnson and her NASA colleagues were the subject of a book and a film. President Barack Obama awarded her a Medal of Freedom in 2015.

Johnson died in 2020 at age 101. Now Congress has honored the space pioneers by awarding them its Gold Medal. Johnson’s daughters, Joylette Hylick and Katherine Moore accepted on her behalf.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the Hidden Figures made the Gemini and Apollo missions successful, including the moon landing in 1969.

“The women we honor today made it possible for earthlings to lift beyond the bounds of Earth. And for generations of trailblazers to follow.”

U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, who helped get the legislation honoring Johnson through Congress, noted the difficulties Johnson faced as a Black woman at a time when few jobs in the space program went to either.

“And as a West Virginian, Katherine used her toughness and grit to surpass societal barriers and turn her dreams into a reality. Her legacy will be remembered every time we look at the moon and remember how her work and their work took us there for the first time.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York reminded the audience that the Hidden Figures attended HBCUs – historically black colleges and universities. In Johnson’s case, that was West Virginia State College, now West Virginia State University.

“They went on to build legendary careers. And helped to shape the exceptionalism of American aeronautics.”

A professor Johnson had at WVSU encouraged her to pursue a career in research mathematics. And with his help, she eventually landed at a predecessor to NASA.

Johnson worked at NASA for 33 years, retiring in 1986, during the height of the shuttle program.

Katherine Johnson: W.Va.'s NASA Extraordinaire Dies

The West Virginia woman behind much of NASA’s 20th century space accomplishments died Monday at 101 years old.

As an African American woman, Katherine Johnson paved the way for many black, female aerospace workers. In her 33 years at NASA, she helped calculate flight paths by hand for America’s first space mission, as well as the first moon landing.

Johnson was the inspiration for the book and Oscar-nominated film ‘Hidden Figures.’

She grew up in White Sulphur Springs, which was at that time segregated. Black women couldn’t go to school past the eighth grade; however, Johnson finished high school by traveling 130 miles for better education.

She went on to become the point woman for space calculations in NASA’s early years. She was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015.

In response to her death, the West Virginia Legislature held a moment of silence Monday. After, democratic lawmakers attempted to revive the “Katherine Johnson Fair Pay Act,” a bill that would have helped West Virginia women negotiate fair and equal pay in the workforce.

“In honor of the great West Virginian and American hero, Mrs. Katherine Johnson, who died today, I’d like to make a motion to discharge House Bill 4885, which is the Katherine Johnson Fair Pay Act, from the Judiciary Committee, which died on Friday,” Delegate Sean Hornbuckle, Cabell County Democrat, said.

If passed, the bill would have made it an unlawful discriminatory practice for an employer to prohibit or retaliate against an employee for disclosing his or her own wages or discussing or inquiring about other employees’ wages. Additionaly, it would have limited employers’ inquiry into a job applicant’s wage and salary history.

Hornbuckle requested the full House revive the Fair Pay Act, which was never considered in its assigned committee.

Hornbuckle’s request failed 58 to 40. In the Senate, a similar request from Bob Beach, Monongalia County Democrat, failed 12 to 21.

**Correction 2/24/20: A previous version did not include the extensive details of House Bill 4885.

West Virginia State University Honors NASA Mathematician

West Virginia State University has honored NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson with a bronze statue and scholarship dedication on the eve of her 100th birthday.

Six of Johnson’s grandchildren revealed the statue during a ceremony Saturday on the West Virginia State campus in Institute.

The university also awarded a scholarship in Johnson’s name to two students majoring in science, technology, engineering and math.

Johnson turned 100 on Sunday. She graduated from the school in 1937 at age 18 with bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and French.

Johnson and three other women crunched numbers at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. They worked in the pre-computer age, calculating rocket trajectories and orbits for the earliest American space flights.

Johnson was featured in the book and 2016 film “Hidden Figures.”

State Native Featured in 'Hidden Figures' Film

A West Virginia native is one of the elite team of female African-American mathematicians at NASA featured in a new film, “Hidden Figures.”

The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington reports the film tells the story of West Virginia State University graduate Katherine Johnson, now in her 90s, who helped win the space race against the Soviet Union. She is played by “Empire” star Taraji P. Henson.

According to NASA, Johnson calculated the trajectory for Alan Shepard, the first American in space. And John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, requested Johnson personally check calculations made by new electronic computers before his flight.

Johnson, who now lives in Virginia, said in a news release, that she “was just solving problems that needed to be solved.” She worked on the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions.