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Author
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Topic: Astronaut nurse Mary Bowen in Houston?
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dom
Member Posts: 1090
From:
Registered: Aug 2001
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posted 07-16-2024 06:23 PM
   
A friend in Ireland remembers his aunty, an Irish nun (and trained nurse) who had lived in Texas since the 1960s sending him a large package containing astronaut photos and an internal NASA Space Shuttle document folder in the mid-1980s when he was a youngster. Alas, they're all long since lost but he distinctly remembers her telling him she worked with the astronauts at NASA. (One item he still remembers was a signed photo of Gene Kranz, but he didn't know who it was until he saw the movie "Apollo 13" years later!)Has anyone ever seen a reference to a Sister Mary Hilary Bowen in connection to the astronauts or NASA? |
ColinBurgess
Member Posts: 2157
From: Sydney, Australia
Registered: Sep 2003
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posted 07-17-2024 04:15 AM
Dom, I'll ask Dee O'Hara. She will know either way. |
dom
Member Posts: 1090
From:
Registered: Aug 2001
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posted 07-17-2024 05:32 AM
Thanks Colin, she’ll be the definitive source on this one! |
onesmallstep
Member Posts: 1473
From: Staten Island, New York USA
Registered: Nov 2007
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posted 07-18-2024 08:25 AM
Nice story, but I doubt she "worked with the astronauts" in any capacity as a nurse (Dee O'Hara and one other nurse, who did not stay long with Project Mercury, were USAF officers and "seconded" to NASA). Perhaps the aunt was involved in some charity or social event with NASA and the astronauts? |
ColinBurgess
Member Posts: 2157
From: Sydney, Australia
Registered: Sep 2003
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posted 07-18-2024 04:26 PM
Dee is indeed the definitive source, and here's what she told me. No, the name does not ring a bell and am sure I haven't heard of her before. Hard for me to imagine any nunnery which would allow one of their nuns to work for an outside agency. Quite a feat, I would say. |
dom
Member Posts: 1090
From:
Registered: Aug 2001
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posted 07-19-2024 02:37 AM
Great, thanks for checking it out. I guess we’ll never know how she came to own the NASA photos she sent to Ireland. If a Nun said she knew some astronauts personally, I’d tend to believe she wasn’t lying! |
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