‘Where the future is.’ Why astronaut John Glenn visited San Luis Obispo in 1968
Some of my favorite public figures are mediocre entertainers. Legendary NASA astronaut John Glenn would fit in that category.
The first American to orbit the earth and a decorated U.S. Marine fighter pilot, Glenn’s life story was filled with great accomplishments — but the biggest criticism leveled at him was his blandness.
Glenn’s fellow Mercury 7 astronauts saw him as a Boy Scout.
One of the most memorable scenes in the Thomas Wolfe book “The Right Stuff,” which inspired the 1983 movie of the same title, shows Glenn taking a stand to support his wife.
He was the first American to orbit the planet, circling Earth three times during the Friendship 7 mission in February 1962.
Glenn was still in his space suit when he got a call from his wife, Annie. She was upset.
Then-Vice President Lyndon Johnson wanted to go to the Glenns’ house and congratulate Annie on the success of the mission on live television.
But Annie was terrified. She had an 85% stutter, meaning that she tripped up on 85% of the words she spoke.
Strong men were often overwhelmed by Johnson, a man with a big ego and a bombastic personality who often felt overshadowed by his boss, President John F. Kennedy.
But Glenn wasn’t cowed. Showing moral courage, he stood up to Johnson and the brass at NASA.
“Look, if you don’t want the vice president or the TV networks or anybody else to come into the house, then that’s it as far as I’m concerned,” John Glenn told her. “They are not coming in and I will back you up all the way and you tell them that! I don’t want Johnson or any of the rest of them to put so much as one toe inside our house!”
The vice-president eventually got in a picture, after John Glenn returned to take the blinding glare of the spotlight off of Annie.
John Glenn would go on to be elected as U.S. Senator from Ohio in 1974. After politics, he returned to space at the age 77 as an astronaut on the Space Shuttle Discovery. He remains the oldest astronaut ever to fly.
Glenn died in 2019 at age 95.
Annie Glenn would go on to win acclaim in her own right. She found a program that helped her overcome her stutter and became an advocate to help others.
She died Tuesday at the age of 100 from complications of coronavirus, the virus that causes COVID-19.
I have just rediscovered some misfiled Telegram-Tribune negatives from May 18, 1968, when John Glenn visited San Luis Obispo during La Fiesta de las Flores to campaign for Robert F. Kennedy’s presidential bid in the California primary.
Many of these photos have never been published before.
Gilbert Moore wrote this story, published on page 9 of the Telegram-Tribune on May 20, 1968, about Glenn’s La Fiesta appearance.
Glenn presents low-key pitch
Pioneer American astronaut John Glenn pleaded for more citizen involvement in political affairs during a Fiesta speech Saturday.
If the public doesn’t, he said, “power will drift into fewer and fewer hands.”
The space hero spoke to several thousand persons in Monterey Street from the balcony of Old Mission, and it was a low-key and partly non-partisan effort.
He mentioned only briefly the fact that he was here to campaign for Sen. Robert Kennedy for President. He is a long-time personal friend of the New York senator.
But the burden of his talk was that Americans must work for their parties and candidates and take a vital part in deciding the great issues such as Vietnam and the urban crisis.
Earlier, at San Luis Obispo Airport, he told the Telegram-Tribune that although the U.S. could still put a man on the moon late in 1969, it would be more realistic to expect this achievement later.
Since three astronauts died in a fiery explosion onboard their Apollo spacecraft in early 1967, he said the space program has been set back by 18 months.
He expects the next manned Apollo flight before the end of this year.
Glenn, still slim and boyish at 46, said he was “sorry to see” that Congress had seriously cut into appropriations for space exploration. But he refrained from direct criticism, adding that the war and the domestic situation have realigned spending priorities.
In the long run, though he called for higher spending on space to keep the nation’s research and scientific programs moving forward.
Glenn reviewed and spoke with the youthful cadets of Squadron 103 of the Civil Air Patrol at the airport, then lauded them in the Fiesta speech.
The project Mercury astronaut has been an honorary member of the squadron here for six years.
Glenn, accompanied by his wife, spent less than two hours in town as part of a weekend campaign jaunt around California for Kennedy.
He said he didn’t rule out flatly ever running for office again himself, but added he probably wouldn’t.
In 1964, he jumped into the Ohio Democratic primary contest for U.S. Senate, only to withdraw after he slipped on a bathroom rug and injured his head. It took him nine months to recover his full balance perception.
He said Kennedy had urged him not to get into that race because of a feeling he didn’t have enough time to put together a solid organization. Glenn did it anyway.
Glenn, who appears fully aware that he is an almost legendary figure because of his February 1962 orbit of the world, attempts for that reason not to sound sharply partisan.
But he said he believes he should take a part-time role in politics because that is “where the future is” and “where the big decisions are made.”
“You can’t just always sit around memorializing a flight made way back in 1962,” he told the Telegram-Tribune
The former Marine colonel left the service in 1964 for politics, later became a vice president of Royal Crown Cola.
He continues that work today, and is also chairman of the board of the firm’s international division.
But part of his time still goes into various personal appearance tours. His politics, though is restricted to weekends.
Mayor Clell Welchel presented Mrs. Glenn a plaque and key to the city.
Glenn, when he was given a La Fiesta ‘68 badge, jokingly said “Now that I’m an official official, I’ll urge all the committee members to get back to work because I might come back next year.”
This story was originally published May 19, 2020 at 1:22 PM.
