Betty Grissom

After her husband's death, she was the plaintiff in a successful lawsuit against a NASA contractor which established a precedent for families of astronauts killed in service to receive compensation.

Grissom worked as a late-night telephone operator for Indiana Bell while her husband studied mechanical engineering at Purdue University.

[6] On January 27, 1967, Gus Grissom, along with fellow astronauts Roger Chaffee and Ed White, died when an electrical fire engulfed the Apollo 1 command module during testing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

[7] Investigations concluded that the "most probable" cause of the fire was an electrical spark that set ablaze flammable insulation in the capsule, exacerbated by the pure oxygen atmosphere.

[1] In 1971 Grissom filed a $10 million wrongful death lawsuit against the Apollo program's prime contractor, North American Rockwell.

Astronaut Virgil I. (Gus) Grissom and his wife Betty and son are shown at the airport at Patrick Air Force Base with NASA Administrator James E. Webb (right). Grissom is speaking into microphones for the news media.