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CHRISTA
CORRIGAN McAULIFFE
by Mike McCormack, NY State Historian
Ed and Grace Corrigan met at
Crosby High School in Waterbury Ct in 1940. In 1946 they were married
just as Ed was entering Boston College. They agreed that children would
have to wait, but love changed that as Ed was entering his sophomore
year. On Sept 2, 1948 - their first child was born. They baptized her
Sharon Christa Corrigan, and called her Christa. When she was only 6
months old, Christa contracted a severe illness that hospitalized her
for 28 days. She recovered, but hospital and medical bills took the
family's savings. Boston Mayor Michael J Curley, a legendary benefactor
of the poor, came to the rescue with a cold-water flat for $23. a month.
It wasn't much, but it was a home and that's where Christa began to grow
into a gifted child, bright and inquisitive.
The family's lean years ended with Ed’s graduation, and they moved to
Waterbury where he became an accountant. They placed little Christa in
modeling school, and she earned an appearance on a local TV fashion show
at the age of 4. A year later, Ed took a job at Jordan Marsh in Boston,
and the family moved to Framingham, where little Christa won the title
of Summer Princess at the local playground. It was becoming clear that
this little girl was someone special. She became a Brownie; a Girl
Scout; took dance, voice, and piano lessons; religious classes, and
sports practice, cramming the most she could into every minute of the
day.
Then in May, 1961, Christa watched, with her schoolmates, as Alan
Shepard, aboard a Redstone Rocket, took America's first trip into space.
She told a classmate that one day she too would go into space, but in
the 1960's that was only wishful thinking, and she knew it; in those
days women were nurses, secretaries, or teachers, so she pursued a
career as a teacher. At High School, Christa met Steve McAuliffe, and
from that day, dated no one else. To say that she was an active teenager
is an understatement. She earned National Honor Society recognition, and
entered Framingham State College, all the while working nights in a
local shipping company, baby sitting, captaining the college debating
team, singing with the glee club, and acting in school plays; yet still
made the Dean's list 3 times. Eight weeks after graduation, she and
Steve were married at St Jeremiah's.
Steve and Christa moved to Washington where Steve attended Georgetown
Law School and Christa worked as a teacher. Just like Ed and Grace
Corrigan, they had to cut corners until Steve's graduation, after which
they returned north to Concord, New Hampshire where Christa got a job
teaching at Concord High School. In typical fashion, she also led a Girl
Scout troop, taught Catechism at St Peters, worked hospital and YWCA
fund-raising campaigns, and appeared in community theater productions.
In her leisure time she joined a volleyball league, a tennis team, and
jogged. She was still cramming as much as she could into every minute of
the day. There was just no time for added activities - until that August
day in 1984.
On that fateful day, Steve and Christa were driving home when they heard
a news item from the White House on the car radio. Today, the President
said, I am directing NASA to begin a search of our elementary and
secondary schools to choose, as the first citizen passenger in the
history of our space program, one of America's finest - a teacher.
Christa felt her stomach tingle; she looked at Steve and, knowing the
dynamic lady he had married, Steve just smiled and said, Go for it.
Christa Corrigan McAuliffe applied to NASA for the position of first
civilian in space, and she wasn't disheartened to learn that over 11,500
others had applied with her. With her customary determination she
persevered; this was what her whole life had prepared her for - she had
lived life to its fullest, and this was the leading edge. Through
interviews, examinations, and training, the process of elimination
gradually reduced the number of applicants to 113, and Christa was still
in the running. She was elated, and felt that whoever the lucky
passenger would be, she was honored just to have come this close. But
she came even closer, as her parents knew she would, for when they
number of finalists had been reduced to 10, Christa was one of them.
Then, on July 19, 1985, Vice President Bush announced that Christa
McAuliffe would be America's first civilian in space. Among the
runners-up were some with better credentials in certain fields, but
Christa was judged the best all around. She was the girl next door, and
it was felt that there was no better person to relate the adventure of
space to the average American than she.
On the sunny morning of January 28, 1986, forty years after their
marriage, Ed and Grace Corrigan stood in a crowd of dignitaries,
watching the space shuttle, Challenger, lift off. It was carrying their
beautiful Christa, and her companions, across the morning sky on a
column of flame, headed for the reaches of outer space. The pride in
their eyes was so visible that media personnel trained their cameras on
them to record their reaction. What they recorded was seen, and will
never be forgotten, by almost every man, woman, and child on this
planet.
The pride became shock, and turned to grief as the shuttle became a ball
of flame, and turned into a sky full of twisted falling metal. In the
blink of an eye, baby Christa, the summer princess of the Framingham
playground, was gone; the teenager who wanted to fly to the moon was no
more. School children wept openly at the loss of their favorite teacher,
and millions recoiled in horror at the tragic turn of events.
From our poor vantage point on the clay of this earth, we felt Ed and
Grace Corrigan's pain. But what of Christa. According to NASA, the crew
felt no panic nor pain. They had been vaporized in an instant, so what
of Christa? Well, think of it. Christa had lived life to its fullest,
never wasting a precious moment; and she was experiencing her fondest
dream. How often have we said, if this be a dream don't wake me, knowing
that anything after would be a letdown. Christa McAuliffe never knew
that letdown. She was in the middle of living her dream, she was at the
peak of her emotions as she buckled into Challenger for the flight into
space. Can you imagine her excitement as the giant shuttle lifted off
into the heavens. And what better end could her dream have had, for
within moments of liftoff, Christa McAuliffe reached out and touched the
welcoming hand of God.
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