Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, June 15, 2011

Beaconsfield native Dr. Peggy WHITSON will take her place beside over 65 other notable Iowans as a member of the Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame in a ceremony Saturday, June 18.

Dr. WHITSON will be honored for her contributions to the space program.

There will be an open house in her honor at the Iowa Aviation Museum, home of the Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame, located just north of Greenfield at the Greenfield Airport on Saturday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

The induction ceremony will be at 2 p.m., after which Dr. WHITSON will speak. Everyone is invited to attend.

Dr. WHITSON has accumulated 377 days in space, the most for any U.S. astronaut and 20th among all space veterans. She has performed a total of six career spacewalks, adding up to 39 hours, 46 minutes, more than any other woman.

She is currently serving as chief of the Astronaut Corps, responsible for the mission preparation activities of all Space Shuttle and International Space Station crews and their support personnel. She is the first woman to hold this position.

Other members in the Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame include Eugene ELY, the first person to fly an airplane off the deck of a ship; Clarence CHAMBERLIN, the first person to take a passenger across the Atlantic Ocean; Neta SNOOK SOUTHERN, the person who taught Amelia EARHART to fly, and Walter CUNNINGHAM, the first astronaut from Iowa.

Colonel George "Bud" DAY, the other of this year's honorees, will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on October 1.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, June of 2011