Creola Katherine (Coleman) Johnson (1918 - 2020)

Born 26 Aug 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, Greenbrier, West Virginia, United States

Ancestors

Wife of James Francis Goble — married 7 Jun 1940 (to 20 Dec 1956) in Covington, Virginia, United States

Wife of James Arthur Johnson — married 22 Aug 1959 in Hampton, Virginia, United States

Died 24 Feb 2020 at age 101 in Newport News, Virginia, United States

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Biography

Katherine (Coleman) Johnson is Notable.

Katherine (Coleman) Johnson was a centenarian, living to age 101.

She was born Creola Katherine Coleman, a daughter of Joshua Coleman and Joylette (Lowe) Coleman, a school teacher, in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia in 1918.^[2][3] In late January 1920, Katherine and her family were living in White Sulphur, Greenbriar County, West Virginia; she was the youngest of four children.^[4] There was no high school for black students in her county, so her family divided their time between home and Institute, West Virginia, where a high school was located on the campus of the historically black West Virginia State College, in Kanawha County, West Virginia,^[5] so that the children could continue their education.^[2] After attaining her B.S. in Mathematics and French at West Virginia State College, summa cum laude, in 1937 (at age 18), she became one of three first African-Americans, and the first African-American woman, to attend graduate school at West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia.^[2]

In 1940 Katherine married James Francis Goble, whom she met in graduate school.^[6][7] Katherine and James had three daughters: Constance,^[8] Joylette,^[9] and Katherine,^[10] all of whom became mathematicians and teachers.^[6] Katherine spent the first years of their marriage teaching school and raising their daughters. In 1953 she accepted a job offer as a mathematician from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics] (NACA), the precursor of NASA, at Langley, Virginia.^[2] Husband James Goble died in 1956.^[11][12]

NACA became NASA in 1958, and she continued working there as first a computer, and then as an aerospace technologist in the Guidance and Control Branch, Flight Research Division, specializing in gust alleviation and trajectory analysis.^[2]

In 1959, Katharine married Lt. Colonel James Arthur "Jim" Johnson,^[13] and they remained married until his death in 2019.

Before her retirement, Katherine worked as a member of NASA's tracking teams responsible for early orbital missions, where her calculations were critical to the success of several missions. The author or co-author of thirteen scientific papers, she received the 1967 NASA Lunar Orbiter Spacecraft and Operations team award for pioneering work in the field of navigation problems supporting the five spacecraft that orbited and mapped the moon in preparation for the Apollo program.^[1] NASA identifies four of her calculations as notable.

When NASA used electronic computers for the first time to calculate John Glenn's orbit around Earth, officials called on Johnson to verify the computer's numbers; Glenn had asked for her specifically and had refused to fly unless Johnson verified the calculations.^[2]

She ... was coauthor of a report in 1962 on the orbital behavior of the first communications satellite, Echo I (a 100-ft-diameter inflatable balloon). That effort was a pioneering contribution because it was the first satellite whose orbit was affected by solar pressure.

... [She did the] trajectory analysis for Alan Shepard’s May 1961 Mercury mission, America’s first human suborbital spaceflight.

... [She] calculated the trajectory for the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the Moon, and computed backup navigational charts for astronauts in case of electronic failures. In 1970, Apollo 13’s aborted mission to the Moon made use of her earlier research on backup parameters and charts, enabling the crew to safely return to Earth four days later.^[14]

She retired from NASA in 1986.

In 2015, President Obama awarded Katherine Johnson the Presidential Medal of Freedom.^[1]

The 2016 movie Hidden Figures tells the tale of NASA mathematicians Katherine Johnson (played by Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (played by Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (played by Janelle Monáe), during the 1960s "Space Race."

She died at a retirement home in Newport News, Virginia on February 24, 2020, at age 101,^[15] and was buried at Hampton Memorial Gardens in Hampton City, Virginia.^[16]

She was posthumously inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2021^[17] .

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Yvette Smith, "Katherine Johnson: The Girl Who Loved to Count," NASA. (November 24, 2015). Archived from the original on February 12, 2019.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6} Wikipedia contributors, "Katherine Johnson," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Katherine_Johnson&oldid=1092181199 (accessed June 24, 2022).
3. ↑ Mary Gainor, ed., "Katherine Johnson," in Human Computers, NASA Cultural Resources (CRGIS), (2016, March 2). Retrieved from NASA Cultural Resources.
4. ↑ "United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MN2T-VS1 : accessed 13 April 2016), Katherine Coleman in household of Joshua M Coleman, White Sulphur, Greenbrier, West Virginia, United States; citing sheet 9B, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,821,953.

   Name	Role	Sex	Age	Birth Place
   Joshua M Coleman	Head	M	38	West Virginia
   Joylatte [Joylette] R Coleman	Wife	F	33	North Carolina
   Horace L Coleman	Son	M	7	West Virginia
   Margaret Coleman	Daughter	F	6	West Virginia
   Charles Coleman	Son	M	4	West Virginia
   Katherine Coleman	Daughter	F	1	West Virginia

5. ↑ "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XMHS-FL1 : accessed 24 February 2020), Katherin Coleman in household of Joylette Coleman, Union, Kanawha, West Virginia, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 82, sheet 8B, line 64, family 150, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 2539; FHL microfilm 2,342,273.
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} Elizabeth H. Oakes, "Johnson, Katherine Coleman Goble," in Encyclopedia of World Scientists, (Infobase Publishing, 2007) pp. 375-376.

   Retrieved from Oakes

7. ↑ "Virginia, Marriage Certificates, 1936-1988," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QK9V-MMLB : 10 January 2019), James Francis Goble and Creola Katherine Coleman, 07 Jun 1940; from "Virginia, Marriage Records, 1700-1850," database and images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : 2012); citing Covington, Virginia, United States, certificate 24905, Virginia Department of Health, Richmond.
8. ↑ "Virginia, Marriage Certificates, 1936-1988," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV1S-MZX9 : 10 January 2019), Katherine Coleman in entry for Hector Joel Garcia and Constance Goble Boykin, 27 Oct 1982; from "Virginia, Marriage Records, 1700-1850," database and images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : 2012); citing Hampton, , Virginia, United States, certificate 82-047639, Virginia Department of Health, Richmond.
9. ↑ Virginia, Marriage Certificates, 1936-1988," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QK9X-CC5W : 10 January 2019), Katherine Coleman in entry for Lawrence E Hylick and Joylette F Goble, 22 Jun 1962; from "Virginia, Marriage Records, 1700-1850," database and images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : 2012); citing Hampton, , Virginia, United States, certificate 13448, Virginia Department of Health, Richmond.
10. ↑ "Virginia, Marriage Certificates, 1936-1988," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVBY-T9R3 : 10 January 2019), Katherine Coleman in entry for Donald Edwin Moore and Katherine Helena Goble, 18 Jul 1965; from "Virginia, Marriage Records, 1700-1850," database and images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : 2012); citing Newport News, , Virginia, United States, certificate 65-021485, Virginia Department of Health, Richmond.
11. ↑ "Virginia, Death Certificates, 1912-1987," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVR8-ZRQM : 16 August 2019), Katherine in entry for James Goble, 20 Dec 1956; from "Virginia, Marriage Records, 1700-1850," database and images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : 2012); citing Newport News, , Virginia, United States, entry #, Virginia Department of Health, Richmond.
12. ↑ James Francis Goble, Find A Grave: Memorial #99241850 accessed on 26 Feb 2020
13. ↑ "Virginia, Marriage Certificates, 1936-1988," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QK9F-J427 : 10 January 2019), James Arthur Johnson and Katherine Coleman Goble, 22 Aug 1959; from "Virginia, Marriage Records, 1700-1850," database and images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : 2012); citing Hampton, , Virginia, United States, certificate 22472, Virginia Department of Health, Richmond.
14. ↑ "Katherine G. Johnson," NASA, nasa.gov May 25, 2017,
15. ↑ Margalit Fox, "Katherine Johnson Dies at 101; Mathematician Broke Barriers at NASA," The New York Times, (February 25, 2020) p. A1
16. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/207382445/katherine-johnson : accessed 24 June 2022), memorial page for Katherine Johnson (26 Aug 1918–24 Feb 2020), Find A Grave: Memorial #207382445, citing Hampton Memorial Gardens, Hampton, Hampton City, Virginia, USA; Maintained by Find a Grave.
17. ↑ National Women’s Hall of Fame

See Also:

• "Johnson, Katherine Coleman Goble," Contemporary Black Biography, (2007). Retrieved April 10, 2016 from Encyclopedia.com.
• Makers. (n.d.) Katherine G. Johnson. MAKERS Video Interview Exerpts (series); March 12, 2014.
  • Note: This is a wonderful set of clips taken from what was clearly a longer interview. In these clips, Katherine describes several key moments related to her education and her work at NASA. (I can't recommend these highly enough. Lloyd-391 01:56, 13 April 2016 (EDT))
• Place, Nathan (2016, April 7). The ‘Human Computer’ Behind the Moon Landing Was a Black Woman. The Daily Beast.

• Wikipedia:Katherine Johnson

• Wikidata: Item Q11740, en:Wikipedia

• 20th Century Studio Belgium, Youtube

• "NASA Renames Facility in Honor of Katherine Johnson", EBONY Magazine, March 5, 2019.

• Margot Lee Shetterly, Katherine Johnson Biography, From Hidden to Modern Figures, NASA. Last Updated: Feb 24, 2020.

• Michele Debczak, "9 Fascinating Facts About Katherine Johnson". Mental Floss. Aug 24, 2018 | Updated: Feb 24, 2020.

• Harrison Smith, Katherine Johnson, ‘hidden figure’ at NASA during 1960s space race, dies at 101 The Washington Post, Obituaries. 24 Feb 2020.

• "United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVY6-8526 : accessed 24 February 2020), Katherine Johnson in entry for Miss Margaret R Coleman, Newport News, Virginia, United States, 15 Dec 2002; from "Recent Newspaper Obituaries (1977 - Today)," database, GenealogyBank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com : 2014); citing Daily Press, born-digital text.