John Glenn - Personal Life

Personal Life

On April 6, 1943, Glenn married his childhood sweetheart, Anna Margaret Castor. They had met in New Concord and played together in the school band. They are the parents of two children. Both Glenn and his wife attended Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio He also was a member of the Stag Club Fraternity at Muskingum College.

Glenn is descended from the Glenn–Macintosh clan of Scotland. In 1963 he received a letter from a young girl in Sheffield, England, named Anne Glenn. The letter, congratulating him on his orbit around the Earth, enclosed a family tree showing that Anne's father, George Arthur Thomas Glenn, and John Glenn were cousins. The news made it into the South Yorkshire Times, and a viewed copy retained by Anne's younger sister Glenn was also one of the original owners for a Holiday Inn franchise near Orlando, Florida, that is today known as the Seralago Hotel & Suites.

Glenn's family includes his great-nephew born just three days after his historic flight, camera operator Glenn Thomas of New York, who was named in his honor.

A Freemason, Glenn is a member of Concord Lodge No.688 Concord, Ohio and DeMolay International, the Masonic youth organization, and is an ordained elder in the Presbyterian Church.

Glenn's boyhood home in New Concord has been restored and made into an historic house museum and education center.

In 2001, Glenn appeared as a guest star on the American television sitcom Frasier.

On August 4, 2006, Glenn and his wife were injured in an automobile accident on I-270 near Columbus, Ohio, and were hospitalized for two days. Glenn suffered a "very sore chest" and a fractured sternum. Annie Glenn was treated for minor injuries. Glenn was cited for failure to yield the right-of-way.

On September 5, 2009, John and Annie Glenn dotted the "i" during Ohio State University's Script Ohio marching band performance, at the Ohio State-Navy football game halftime show. Bob Hope, Woody Hayes, Buster Douglas, E. Gordon Gee, Novice Fawcett, Robert Ries and Jack Nicklaus are the only other non-band members to have received this honor.

On February 20, 2012, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Friendship 7 flight, Glenn was surprised with the opportunity to speak with the orbiting crew of the International Space Station while Glenn was on-stage with NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden at Ohio State, where the public affairs school is named for him.

On April 19, 2012, Glenn participated in the ceremonial transfer of the retired Space Shuttle Discovery from NASA to the Smithsonian Institution for permanent display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. Speaking at the event, Glenn criticized the "unfortunate" decision to end the Space Shuttle program, expressing his opinion that grounding the shuttles delayed research.