Annie Glenn, 100, famed astronaut's widow, dies of COVID-19

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Annie Glenn, wife of the late astronaut and U.S. Sen. John Glenn who overcame a childhood stutter to become an advocate for others with speech disorders, died Tuesday of complications from COVID-19. She was 100.

Glenn died at a nursing home near St. Paul, Minnesota, where she'd moved in recent years to be near her daughter, said Hank Wilson, a spokesman for the Glenn College of Public Affairs at The Ohio State University.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine also announced Glenn's death, the latest among centenarians succumbing rapidly to the new coronavirus.

John Glenn died in 2016 following an extraordinary career that included serving as a Democratic U.S. senator from Ohio. At the time of his death, the two had been married 73 years.

It was “the stuff of fairy tales and one of the great love stories of all time,” Dale Butland, the senator's former speechwriter and chief of staff, said in a statement Tuesday.

“During WW II, the Korean war and two flights into outer space, Annie patiently waited for her John to come home,” Butland said. “Since December of 2016, John’s been patiently waiting for his Annie. Today, they’re both where they always wanted to be: together — for all eternity.”

Annie Glenn was thrust into the spotlight in 1962, when her husband became the first American to orbit Earth. She shied away from the media attention because of a severe stutter.

Later, she underwent an intensive program at the Communications Research Institute at Hollins College, now Hollins University, in Roanoke, Virginia, that gave her the skills to control her stutter and to speak in public.

By the time 77-year-old John Glenn returned to space in 1998 aboard space shuttle Discovery, Annie showed she had become comfortable in her public role...