Public pays respect to John Glenn in Ohio
Public pays respect to John Glenn in Ohio:- Hundreds are expected to pay their respects to astronaut and former U.S. Sen. John Glenn on Friday, when his body lies in state at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio.
An American flag is draped over Glenn’s casket inside the Statehouse rotunda and was flanked by two members of a United States Marine honor guard before the public arrived. His body will lie in state until 8 p.m.
Glenn, who died Dec. 8 at the age of 95, flew 149 combat missions as a Marine pilot in World War II and the Korean War, then became the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth. He later served 24 years as a Democratic U.S. senator from Ohio and returned to space at age 77, orbiting Earth 134 times in 1998. That same year, as he was preparing to leave the Senate, he helped create the John Glenn Institute for Public Service and Public Policy at Ohio State.
Glenn’s death sparked numerous remembrances by people who crossed his path.
Glenn was different from the other Mercury 7 astronauts.
“Sunday mornings, when the parents of the other six were nursing their hangovers, he was on the beach having track meets with the kids. He and Annie would hand out medals to us,” said Bob Foster, whose father worked on the Mercury missions. “He was a great man.”
Foster, who now lives in Los Alamos, California, remembered watching Glenn’s first launch from Cocoa Beach, Florida, in 1962. He was about 11 years old at the time, and space travel was a marvel.
“Incredible. Everybody was outside watching the missile go off. Then, everybody was inside watching the television,” Foster said.
When Glenn returned from orbiting the Earth three times, the astronaut tossed a note on Bob Foster Sr.’s desk: “Nice ride in the flying machine, Bob. Thanks.”
All Kempton Baldridge wanted for his 8th birthday was to meet Glenn and shake his hand.
Baldridge’s father, The Rev. Kempton D. Baldridge, of Mariemont, Ohio, said he would try. The senator was very busy, but Baldridge was a Navy chaplain, so he would see what he could do.
Glenn agreed to the meeting and spent an hour with 8-year-old Kempton, 6-year-old Grace and their parents. Glenn showed Kempton what looked like an empty toothpaste tube. It was actually apple sauce that could be eaten in space. Glenn kept it in his desk drawer just in case.
“Did you pray in space?” Kempton asked.
Glenn, a devoted Presbyterian, said he prayed everyday, but he needed prayer even more entering the U.S. Senate than space. That moment solidified Glenn as a hero for the Baldridge family. His humility and kindness were even more impressive than his space missions. Baldridge paid his respects to Glenn on behalf of himself and his son, who is now 28 years old and at the Great Lakes Maritime Academy.
“He was a hero for all the right reasons,” Baldridge said. “I need to know that there are people like John Glenn.”
“Do you have any pets?” Nancy Hallenberg recalled her student asking Sen. John Glenn during a school trip to Washington, D.C.
Glenn had a way of putting everyone at ease. Despite his accomplishments, Glenn didn’t mind answering questions from seventh and eighth grade students from St. Joseph Montessori School in Columbus, said Hallenberg, a retired teacher.
“Everyone was important,” said Hallenberg, of Boynton Beach, Florida.
Hallenberg met Glenn a second time when she and her son, John Hofferberth, were riding a bus in Florida. Then a student at Miami University, Hofferberth was studying the Mercury 7 astronauts as part of a scholarship. They happened to board the same bus as Glenn, who was talking about his desire to return to space.
“Boy, I’d do anything to go up again,” Glenn said before his second flight in 1998. Hallenberg said she was delighted that Glenn eventually got that chance.
“It felt like the right thing to do,” said Michael Griffaton, of Pickerington, Ohio when asked why he came out to pay his respects to Glenn. He had never met Glenn. He had no personal connection to the Ohio icon. But on Friday, Griffaton was one of the first people in line.
Glenn represents the best of America. The presidential election perhaps represented the worst. It felt good to honor a man for his lifetime of dedicated service, Griffaton said.
Source:- http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/12/16/public-pays-respect-john-glenn-ohio/95526718/
