J is for John and Johnson

I apologize for the tardiness of my J. I was right about to post my Jimmy Stewart post last night when my wife inquired if my Katharine Johnson post was finished. I checked my master list and much to my chagrin I had Stewart moved from J to S to get Katherine Johnson and John Glen into our A to Z orbit. So the good news Stewart's post will be ready when S rolls around later this month. The bad  news is J will be my first late entry of this years challenge and probably not the last.  

Katherine Johnson

                                                                     Years lived before 1921: Three

                                                                     Years lived after 1921: Ninety-nine 

Katherine Johnson (Left) Barack Obama (Center) Willie Mays (Right)

2015 Medal of Freedom ceremony at White House

John Glenn

                                                                           Years lived before 1921: Zero 

                                                                          Years lived after 1921: Ninety-Five

             John Glenn entering Friendship 7.

In 1962, multiple fledgling IBM computers were determining the trajectory of the Friendship 7 from take off to splashdown.  John Glenn who, like many astronauuts of his era, was weary of putting his life in the hands of computing machines, asked that Katherine Johnson do all the calculations manually and said "if she says they're good, then I'm ready to go." The rest is NASA history.

Click here for more of the A to Z Challenge.

                                                    
 

                                            

I is for Ingalls

 

Laura Ingalls Wilder

Years lived before 1921: Fifty-four

Years lived after 1921: Thirty-six 

Laura Ingalls Wilder is the  author of the Little House  books a somewhat fictionalized account of her life growing up on the American frontier. Laura was the 2nd of 5 children of Charles and Caroline Ingalls.  The only boy Charles Frederick Ingalls died when he was less than 1 year old.  Laura married Almanzo Wilder and they had 1  daughter, Rose.

                                                Carrie           Mary                   Laura

In 1921 all Laura's sisters, her mother and her daughter were all still living

.

Caroline Quiner Ingalls lived from 1839-1924 (83 years before 1921 and 3 after)

Laura's older sister Mary  was born in 1865 and died 4 years after her mother in 1928.  She lived 56 years before 1921 and 7 years after.

Laura's baby sister Grace was born in 1877, 44 years prior to 1921.  She passed away20 years later in 1941.

In 1921 Laura's sister Carrie turned 51 years of age.  When she died 25 years later, Laura became the last surviving child of her father and mother.

Almanzo Wilder  like my own grandfather was 10 years older than his wife. Almanzo lived 64 years before 1921 and lived 28 years after passing away in 1949.

Laura and Almanzo's daughter Rose was born in 1886 and died in 1968. She lived 35 years prior to 1921 and 47 years after that. Rose was the last living descendent of Charles and Carolyn, unless you count Laura's books which still enjoy a life of their own

I am posting this letter early which I hardly ever do.  I am taking the weekend off and will be back with the letter J on Monday.  Please go bak and enjoy more of  the challenge. 

H is for Hepburn

  

                                                            Katherine Hepburn

                                                            Years Lived Before 1921: Twelve

                                                            Years Lived After 1921: Eighty Two

Let's switch things up just a little today. Instead of delving into the biography of Katherine Hepburn.  I will list one movie from each decade of her film career.

1930's Little Women (1933) 

1940's Philadelphia Story (1940)

Nominated for Academy Award for Best Actress

1950's African Queen (1951)

 

Nominated for Academy Award for Best Actress

1960's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) 

Won  Academy Award for Best Actress

1970's Rooster Cogburn (1975)

1980's On Golden Pond (1981) 

Won Academy Award for Best Actress

In all, Hepburn was nominated 12 times for the Academy Award for best actress  and won 4 times which is pretty good for someone once dubbed box office poison.

A TO Z Easter Eggs

A To  Z Extra

 H is for Hundred at Random Acts of Roller. Discover 10 things that happened in 1921.  

After you've looked at the additional content from my other blogs head back to the challenge.

G is for George

 

George Washington Carver

Year lived before 1921: Fifty-seven

Years lived after 1921: Twenty-two

George Washington Carver was born into slavery in Missouri in 1864. He was an educator , a  life long learner, a man of faith and science,   an accomplished artist and musician and a great humanitarian. He did not invent peanut butter as is often attributed to him. However, his work at The Tuskegee institute did not only help the African American students there it helped poor southern farmers, black and white, to be less dependent on farming one crop (generally cotton) and diversifying to crops such as but not limited to sweet potatoes and peanuts.

In 1894 Carver became  the first African American to earn a Bachelor's degree in science. He followed that up prior to the turn of the century  by earning his Masters of Agricultural degree at what was then called Iowa State Agricultural School.

In his almost 50 years at Tuskegee put all that science to practical use.  He would explain to his students and to local farmers that crops like peanuts and sweet potatoes would revitalize the soil ravaged by years of growing cotton.  Another problem with growing only cotton is that is not a food crop, so the farmers would need to borrow money for sustenance.  By switching to food crops, the farmer could sustain themselves with plenty remaining to sell at market.

When I decided on people who lived in 1921 for my theme for this years A to Z Challenge, George Washington Carver was the person I wanted to include most on the list.  When I was homeschooling my children I bought them a number of biographies written by janet & Geoff Benge.  

My kids enjoyed reading them and I enjoyed reading them as well.  Last year I found that the George Washington Carver biography was available at my library as a downloadable audio book.  I listened to it and rediscovered why I appreciated Carver when I learned about him in grade school.  

That does it for today's edition.  I'm just nutty about George Washington Carver. As you can tell by that horrible pun, I am also just nutty. Click here to return to the A to Z challenge.

F is for Fisher

Aileen Fisher

Years lived before 1921: Fifteen

Years Lived after 1921: Eighty-one

I never try out my ideas on children, except on the child that I used to know...and that -- was me! Fortunately, I remember pretty well what I used to like to read, think about, and do. I find, even today, that if I write something I like children are apt to like it too.  I guess what it amounts too is I never grew up.  Over the years I  have discovered you really don't have to grow up. - Aileen Fisher

Aileen Fisher is one of my daughter's favorite poets and she quickly became mine.   There are many excellent posts dedicated to Aileen in the blogosphere.  One of the best is from the blog Poetry for Children on the occasion of what would have been her hundredth birthday.

Not only was Miss Fisher a great poet she also wrote non fiction and fiction for children. In 1978, she was the 2nd recipient of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) award for Excellence in Poetry for Children.  

Here are two poems of hers with the illustrations to give an idea of a bit of her style.

 

A To Z Easter Eggs

 A to Z Archives: Poems at Alice's Bunny Blog. Alice is my oldest daughter's build-a-bear (full disclosure she's a bunny) Alice was quite the blogger back in the day and she wrote this nifty post about 2 of her favorite poems both about bunnies with one being the best poem I think Aileen Fisher ever did write.  Check it out!

 Inaugural Holiday Poetry Reading at Dave Out Loud. This past Christmas I read several of my own poems and then ended with Aileen Fisher's Do Rabbits Have Christmas. 

After you've looked at the additional content from my other blogs head back to the challenge and  continue exploring.