Sunday Gazette Mail
By Douglas Imbrogno
Motion Masters at work recounting Katherine Johnson’s mathematical life
The recent Hollywood hit film “Hidden Figures” brought the remarkable life story of West Virginia native Katherine Johnson to audiences around the planet.
It seemed an apt turn of events. After all, the wunder- kind African-American NASA engineer, born in segregated White Sulphur Springs in 1918, was a key figure in launching the first American, Alan Shep- ard, into space, and later, John Glenn, into orbit around the globe that now knows her name.
But, inevitably, when telling a life story, Hollywood takes liberties. “Hidden Figures” is no different in recounting the tale of a preciously brilliant young woman who graduated from high school at age 13, headed to West Virginia State College in Institute and went on to chart the flight paths astronauts would take into orbit and to the moon.