Light This Candle: The Life & Times of Alan Shepard--America's First Spaceman (68 page)

Read Light This Candle: The Life & Times of Alan Shepard--America's First Spaceman Online

Authors: Neal Thompson

Tags: #20th Century, #History, #United States, #Biography & Autobiography, #Astronauts, #Biography, #Science & Technology, #Astronautics

BOOK: Light This Candle: The Life & Times of Alan Shepard--America's First Spaceman
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page 438, “The search goes on . . .”: Ibid.

page 439, “Some unfortunate ones didn’t have a dream”:
The Other Side of the
Moon
(Discovery Communications Inc., unreleased review copy).

page 439, He once told a friend: Author interview with Allen Neuharth.

page 440, “to put it in a box, and on a shelf”: Shepard, Academy of Achievement.

page 440, “gone to great lengths to maintain my privacy”: “People in the News,” Associated Press (May 5, 1979).

page 440, “where else are you going to go?”: Watson,
The Washington Times.

page 441, “about broke even on that”: Wainwright,
Life
(1971).

page 441, “some good business deals and some bad ones”: Wainwright,
Life
(1971); Platt,
Florida Today;
“Alan Shepard: Oldest, Richest of Astronauts,”
Washington Post
(January 3, 1971).

page 441, “for my own personal gain”: Olive M. Abbott, et al.,
From Turnpike
to Interstate: The 150 Years of Derry, New Hampshire
(Canaan, New Hampshire: Phoenix Publishing, 1977), p. 90.

page 441, businessmen . . . “like ducks to water”: Author interview with Gordon Cooper.

page 442, Shepard . . . experienced “his share of close calls”: Ibid.

page 442, “not to use my position as an astronaut”: Wainwright,
Life
(1970).

page 442, “I tried to separate the two”: Ibid.

page 442, [Molly Ivins on Texas]: Molly Ivins,
Molly Ivins Can’t Say That, Can
She?
(New York: Random House, 1991).

page 443, “He was quite a salesman”: Author interview with Howard Benedict.

page 443, “The business world has smiled upon us”: Naval Academy “Class of ’45” newsletter (1985).

page 443, “never really a fan” of the stock market: Shepard, unpublished interview with author Robert Sherrod.

page 444, [Shepard’s first Kmart]: Ibid.

page 444, “a relatively good investment”: Robert Sh
errod, unpublished manuscript, NASA archives.

page 445, “The pay is a lot better than going to the moon”: Henry,
All Hands
(1982).

page 446, Kraft agreed to put $10,000 down: Author interview with Chris Kraft.

page 446, “Al, I don’t trust this guy”: Ibid.

page 446, “I haven’t seen a dollar of profit yet”: Ibid.

page 446, “until I’m pushing up daisies”: Ibid.

page 446, “got taken . . . We have nothing”: Cathy Gordon, “Pothol
es and Promises,”
Houston Chronicle
(June 21, 1987).

page 447, “He was lucky he didn’t go to jail”: Author interview with
Chris Kraft.

page 448, besides making money: Naval Academy “Class of ’45” newsletter (1985).

page 448, “a hell of a lot more famous”: Doug Ferguson, “Moon Mulligan,”
Houston Chronicle
(July 23, 1998).

page 449, “metabolized a lot of adrenaline in my life”: Pat Sullivan, “An Astronaut’s Pitch for Pebble Beach,”
San Francisco Chronicle
(January 15, 1991).

page 449, “his ability didn’t always match his competitiveness”: Author interview with Bob Murphy.

page 449, “chicken feed”: NBC Sports Spectacular (May 17, 1971).

page 450, “the world’s best kept secret”: “Shepard Admits Three Shots to Sink Moon Hole-in-One,”
Philadelphia Bulletin
(May 2, 1971).

page 450, “I’ve never told anybody”: Jaime Diaz, “Shooting for the Moon,”
Sports Illustrated
(August 3, 1998).

page 450, Shepard’s moon balls were . . . made by Spalding: Ibid.

page 450, “I wonder where my golf ball is”: Author interview with Bob Murphy.

21: “I saw a different Alan Shepard, completely different”

page 451, “the question of what bravery is”: Mort Sheinman, “Tom Wolfe; the Author of ‘The Right Stuff’ Blasts Off In This 1979 Interview,”
Women’s Wear
Daily
(September 13, 1999).

pages 452–453, [Louise and
The Right Stuff
]: Author interview with Dorel Alco Abbot.

page 453, “I have nothing to gain and everything to lose”: Ibid.

page 453, “none of it was all that accurate”: Slayton and Cassut,
DEKE!,
p. 317.

page 453, “poetic license . . . great movie”: Elisabeth Bumiller and Phi
l McCombs, “The Right Stuff,”
The Washington Post
(October 17, 1983).

page 453, “just fiction”: Brenda You, “Alan Shepard Gets Another S
hot at Fame,”
The Chicago Tribune
(June 16, 1994).

page 453, “What movie?”: Watson,
The Washington Times.

page 453, “nowhere near as tough as I was”: Ibid.

page 454, without interviewing any of “the original guys”: Jeffrey Weiss, “Alan B. Shepard Jr.,”
The Dallas Morning News
(July 10, 1994).

page 455, “old disagreements didn’t seem so important”: Ibid.

page 455, “Your idea, you do it”: Author interview with Henri Landwirth; Landwirth,
Gift of Life,
p. 165.

page 456, [Shepard watching space shuttle explosion]: Author interview with Bob Murphy.

page 456, “a sense of overconfidence, a sense of complacency”: Weiss,
The
Dallas Morning News.

page 456, “We thought, as a group . . .”: Patt Morrison, “25 Years Later, Mercury Team Launches New Task,”
Los Angeles Times
(May 5, 1986).

page 457, secretly gave money to help a child: Author interview with Bobbie Slayton.

page 457, gave one of his secondhand cars: Author interview with John Fasolino.

page 457, his parents’ . . . housekeeper’s well: Author interview with Hattie Durgin.

page 458, “He didn’t take one penny for himself”: Author interview with Henri Landwirth.

page 458, “He became passionate about it”: Author interview with Howard Benedict.

page 458, “He was very generous”: Author interview with Wally Schirra.

page 458, “Al was the one who really persisted”: Author interview with John Glenn.

page 459, “Hey, what’re you doing?”: Author interview with John Fasolino.

page 459, One of the other twelve moonwalkers once said:
The Other Side of
the Moon
(Discovery Communications Inc., unreleased review copy).

page 459, “You really end up caring for this planet”: Ibid.

page 460, “If this will help Deke, I’ll do it”: Author interview with Howard Benedict.

page 461, “He did that for Deke and me”: Author interview with Bobbie Slayton.

page 462, getting a morning tee time ten minutes before: Author interview with Doc Abbot.

page 462, a round with Tiger Woods: Author interview with Robert Williams.

22: “This is the toughest man I’ve ever met”

page 463, ceremony for the Alan B. Shepard Jr.: Author interview with Jack Lengyl.

page 464, “I’m going to beat this”: Author interview with Robert Williams.

page 465, [AT&T Pro-Am—not invited back]: Author inte
rview with Bob Murphy; author interview with Daniel Hruby, AT&T Pro-Am historian.

page 465, not a candidate for a bone marrow transplant: Author
interview with Mickey Kapp.

page 465, his twice-monthly “pinking up”: Ibid.

page 465, traveled the country looking for a cure: Author interview with Robert Williams.

page 467, “trying to get along, desperately trying to get along”: Cheryl Arvidson, “Alan Shepard remembered as space hero, First Amendment supporter,”
The Freedom Forum
(Web site obituary, July 22, 1998).

page 467, “Go talk to my doctor”: Transcript of Shepard interview on CNN (June 20, 1998).

page 468, “a very emotional evening”: Author interview with John Glenn.

page 469, “That was competition at its best”: Shepard, Academy of Achievement.

page 470, One astronaut had seven wives in sixteen years: Cunningham.
The All-American Boys,
p. 187.

page 471, Louise spoke of how much she missed him: Author inter
view with Loraine Meyer.

page 471, she might not be cut out for widowhood: Author interview with Dorel Alco Abbot.

page 472, Laura told a family friend . . . : Author interview with Robert Williams.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Interviews

Dorel Alco Abbot, James L. “Doc” Abbot, Andrew Atwell, Robert Baldwin, Foster Ball, Jay Barbree, Jack Barron, Ray Bates, Sam Beddingfield, Howard Benedict, Al Blackburn, Bill Botts, Sherman Brickett, Anne (Shepard) Bullis, Eugene Cernan, William F. Chaires, Laura (Shepard) Churchley, J. T. Cockrill, Gordon Cooper, Wayne Coyne, Walter Cronkite, Bill Dana, Nancy Darling, H. Y. Davidson, Al Deale, Hattie Durgin, Robert Elder, Ike Evans, John Fasolino, Chuck Friedlander, Francis Gallien, Bill Geiger, Paul Gillcrist, John Glenn, Don Gregory, Betty Grissom, Paul Haney, Dick Hardy, Paul Havenstein,
Don Hawes, Bill Hines, William House, John Huber, Julie (Shepard) Jenkins, Howard Johnson, Mickey Kapp, Jack King, Wayne Koons, Christopher Kraft, Henri Landwirth, William Lawrence, Jack Lengyl, James Lovell, William McLaughlin, Maxine Messinger, Loraine Meyer, Ed Mitchell, John Mitchell, Lola Morrow, Ralph Morse, Harold Moynihan, Bob Murphy, Al Neuharth, Dee O’Hara, Warren O’Neil, George Overman, Marion Pounder, James “Jig Dog” Ramage, Frank Repp, Larry Richardson, Julian Scheer, Jim Schefter, Walter M. Schirra, Joe Schmitt, Gloria Schwendeman, Hank Searls, Denni Seibert, Richar
d Sewall, George Sheldon, Don Shelton, Dudley Shepard, Henry Shepard, Tazewell Shepard, Bobbie Slayton, Charles B. Spangler, Tom Spargo, Ralph Stell, James Stockdale, Syd Stockdale, Bill Strong, Dick True, Peter Vanderhoef, Robert Voas, Alice (Shepard) Wackermann, Tamie Watters, Mickey Weisner, Ralph Weymouth, George Whisler, Betty Whisler, Robert Beresford Williams

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