Annie Glenn is honored in her home state

A memorial service honored Annie Glenn, 100, widow of John Glenn, an astronaut and senator from Ohio.

COLUMBUS » Mourners praised Annie Glenn on Saturday as a dogged fighter for those with speech disorders, a source of support for her astronaut husband and a hero in her own right.

Glenn, wife of the late John Glenn, died May 19 at 100 of complications from COVID-19. She had been living in a nursing home near St. Paul, Minnesota, to be nearer to her daughter, Lyn.

During a virtual memorial service, son David said after his mother overcame her lifelong stutter, she struck up so many conversations it seemed she was making up for lost time.

“Through all of her life, the most prominent characteristic that my mother embodied, as far as I’m concerned, was how she loved and cared about others,” he said in a remote broadcast.

“Annie treated everyone as this amazing surprise standing in front of her,” recalled journalist Connie Schultz, who said many overlook the heroism required of her as she sent her husband into space.

The Glenns were married for 73 years at the time of John Glenn’s death in 2016. He was the first American to orbit the Earth, as well as a military hero and Democratic U.S. senator from Ohio. He often attributed his accomplishments to Annie’s strength and support.

Schultz, who contributed to the service alongside her husband, Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, said Glenn provided her tips on how to be a political spouse.

When Schultz lamented to Glenn, for example, that political consultants seemed to either see a wife as “a prop or a problem,” Glenn told Schultz: “Well, then, be a problem.”

Rev. Amy Miracle, pastor of Broad Street Presbyterian Church, said it is difficult to imagine that such a well-lived life as Annie Glenn’s ended amid a pandemic. But she said Glenn did not really die alone.

“God was with Annie, holding her hand, whispering her name,” she said. “Where else would God be?”

PAUL VERNON — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE Former astronaut and U.S. Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, left, answers questions with his wife Annie Glenn May 14, 2015during an interview with The Associated Press at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus. Glenn, the widow of John Glenn and a communication disorders advocate, died May 19of COVID-19complications at a nursing home near St. Paul, Minn., at age 100.

BOB SCHUTZ — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE Astronaut John Glenn poses with his wife, Annie, Feb. 3, 1962outside their Arlington, Va., home during his first news conference. Glenn, the widow of astronaut and U.S. Sen. John Glenn and a communication disorders advocate, died Tuesday, May 19, 2020, of COVID-19complications at a nursing home near St. Paul, Minn., at age 100.