Annie Jean Easley

She helped most Africans-Americans to register and vote despite the literacy tests aiming to exclude them from voting. Easley relocated to Cleveland where she applied for a mathematician post at NASA and got the job two weeks later. She worked at NASA for 34 years as a mathematician and computer scientist.

Annie Easley (1933-2011) was a computer scientist, mathematician and rocket scientist. She worked on Centaur technology at NASA — a high-energy rocket technology that uses liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to boost rockets into space.

Xavier University of Louisiana

Easley was the daughter of Samuel Bird Easley and Mary Melvina Hoover. Easley and her brother, six years older, were raised by their single mother. After Easley’s husband was discharged from the military, the couple moved to Cleveland, Ohio, to be near his family.

Computer Scientist

Mathematician

However, Easley’s mother encouraged and motivated her to work hard and pursue her dreams. She encouraged her to get a good education and from the fifth grade through high school, she attended a parochial school and was valedictorian of her graduating class.

In the 1970s, Easley returned to school to earn her degree in mathematics from Cleveland State, doing much of her coursework while also working full time.

78 years (1933–2011)

Women in Science and Technology: Annie Easley―The Story of a NASA Computer Scientist, Grades 1-3 Interactive Book With Illustrations, Vocabulary, Extension Activities (24 pgs) Hardcover – August 11, 2019.

Easley’s work with the Centaur project helped lay the technological foundations for future space shuttle launches and launches of communication, military and weather satellites. Her work contributed to the 1997 flight to Saturn of the Cassini probe, the launcher of which had the Centaur as its upper stage.

(later N.A.S.A.) at the Lewis Research Center. Annie’s work supported aeronautics, aerospace and energy studies at Lewis Research….Annie Jean Easley.

Deceased (1933–2011)

Annie J Easley – United States, 1933 – 2011 You’re never too old, and if you want to, as my mother said, you can do anything you want to, but you have to work at it.”

Annie Easley of NASA Glenn was a human ‘computer’ like those in ‘Hidden Figures’ (photos) Annie Easley was Cleveland’s earliest Hidden Figure, beginning her career in 1955 and doing the math for simulations for the Aircraft Engine Research Facility in Cleveland in the early days of what became NASA.

As the years passed and the center evolved, the West Computers became engineers and electronic computer programmers. The women were the first black managers at Langley and it was their brilliant work that propelled the first American, John Glenn, into orbit in 1962.

mathematician

engineer Mary Jackson