John Glenn’s widow dies of virus complications
COLUMBUS, Ohio – She lived her entire life with a man who became universally revered, but to millions across the globe, Annie Glenn was her own kind of hero.
The wife of John Glenn, the former astronaut and U.S. senator, died early Tuesday at a nursing home near family in St. Paul, Minnesota, of complications from COVID-19. She was 100.
John Glenn died in 2016 at age 95 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
“This is a very sad day for all Ohioans,” Gov. Mike DeWine told The Dispatch, part of the USA TODAY Network, on Tuesday morning as he prepared to sign an order to fly flags at half-staff until Annie Glenn’s service.
“Annie Glenn was certainly our most beloved Ohioan,” said DeWine, who served with her husband in the U.S. Senate. “There wouldn’t have been a John Glenn without Annie Glenn. Theirs is an inspiring love story. She represented all that is good about our country.”
Annie, as everyone knew her, lived in the shadow of fame, but emerged in midlife to become an inspiration for people with disabilities around the world by overcoming the chronic stuttering that afflicted and limited her during the years her husband was becoming a household name.
She was born Anna Margaret Castor in Columbus on Feb. 17, 1920, and her father, a dentist, moved the family to New Concord when she was 3. Her parents joined a monthly card club called “Twice 5 Club,” which included John Glenn’s parents. She and John, who was 17 months younger, shared a playpen from whence a quintessential love story would take root.
Despite her speech impediment – she stuttered 85% of the time – Annie was a top student and readily was accepted in the close-knit college town of
New Concord, 70 miles east of Columbus in rural Muskingum County. In the sixth grade, however, she experienced her first hint of the humiliation that would haunt her through much of her life when one of the students laughed at her as she recited a poem before the class.
“I realized I was not normal,” Annie told The Dispatch in 2007. “I was lucky to have grown up where I was accepted. When I went out in the world, even to Zanesville and Cambridge, I had a lot of hurt feelings. I knew I was loved and accepted in New Concord.”
The spark between John and Annie ignited in junior high school, and they both stayed home to attend Muskingum College. Annie, a dark-eyed beauty, dreamed of being a teacher but pursued a music degree because she played the organ and could sing without stuttering.
John’s education was interrupted by World War II, but before heading off to flight training in the Marine Corps, he gave Annie an engagement ring. On her own, Annie went to Dayton in search of a job and confronted the everyday limitations of stuttering.
“I had to write out where I wanted to go and I handed it to the bus driver,” she remembered. “He thought I was deaf. He wrote back how much money I needed. Lots of people thought when my jaws sort of started shaking (as she tried to talk) that I was cold. Lots of people would turn their backs and walk away from me. I have been laughed at many times.”
A virtual memorial service is scheduled for 11 a.m. June 6, at the Broad Street Presbyterian Church, according to a news release from Ohio State.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions on large gatherings, no parishioners or guests will be present. The service will be livestreamed at glenn.osu.edu.
Annie Glenn will be buried with her husband at Arlington National Cemetery.