John and Annie Glenn Museum houses roots of life, and love, that reached for the stars
The roots of a heroic American life that grew to reach the heavens are found in New Concord, Ohio.
The John and Annie Glenn Museum opens to the public for the 2024 season on Wednesday, May 1.
"This is where John Glenn spent his formative years," Hope Neal, assistant director of the museum, told Fox News Digital.
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Glenn was born in 1921 a few miles away in Cambridge, Ohio, but spent almost his entire youth in this dignified home, a picture-postcard image of the American heartland.
The future U.S. Marine Corps pilot and astronaut was just two years old when he moved to New Concord with his parents, John Herschel and Clara (Sproat) Glenn.
His father owned a plumbing business in the town.
"John lived here until he was about 20 and then he entered the military and got shipped away," said Neal.
Period actors "invite guests into the home as if they are old friends stopping by to visit the Glenn family," the museum website points out.
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"Guests get to see the place in which John’s dreams of aviation were born."
Those dreams allowed Glenn to boldly go where no American had gone before: into space.
He enlisted in the Marine Corps at age 20, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Glenn proved one of the greatest fighter pilots in American history.
He flew 59 combat missions in the South Pacific in World War II and 63 more during the Korean War.
Among many real-life legends of Glenn’s career, he counted Hall of Fame baseball slugger Ted Williams, a fellow two-war veteran, as his wingman during the Korean War.
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"Absolutely fearless," Williams said of his friend and comrade in arms. "The best I ever saw. It was an honor to fly with him."
Glenn served as a test pilot and became one of NASA’s first astronauts in 1959.
He forged his name in the history of human exploration as the first American to orbit the Earth on Feb. 20, 1962.
It was a landmark moment in both human exploration and in the Cold War, as the United States frantically rushed to keep pace with the Soviet Union, which enjoyed an early lead in the space race.
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Glenn, among other achievements, spent 25 years as a U.S. senator, representing Ohio.
The museum is also dedicated to the life and achievements of his wife, Annie Glenn, and the lifelong love story the couple shared, beginning in New Concord.
"John & Annie Glenn met when they were just toddlers," the museum website notes.
"Their parents came to New Concord at about the same time and soon became friends. When they got together for dinner, John and Annie would share a playpen."
The couple wed in 1943, when John Glenn was a young Marine in World War II.
They shared their lives for 73 years.
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