User:Coffeeandcrumbs/Gene Nora Stumbough

Gene Nora Stumbough Jessen (born January 10, 1937) is an American pilot and a member of the Mercury 13, thirteen women who, as part of a privately funded program, underwent the same physiological screening tests as the astronauts selected by NASA for Project Mercury.

Early life
Gene Nora Stumbough was born on January 10, 1937, in Springfield, Illinois.

Stumbough was a flight instructor at the University of Oklahoma when she heard about William Randolph Lovelace II's program to put women through the same test used to select men for the Project Mercury.