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she turned down an organ scholarship at Julliard. During the early years of their marriage, she worked as an organist in various churches and taught trombone lessons. A severe stutterer, she later became an adjunct professor in the Speech Pathology Department at Ohio State%u2019s Department of Speech and Hearing Science.After the war, John joined the staff of the Commandant of the Marine Corps Schools, and by July 1952, he had become a major. When the Korean War broke out, Glenn returned to combat duty, and received two more Distinguished Flying Crosses and eight additional Air Medals. With his remarkable wartime experience, he was able to enter the Navy%u2019s Test Pilot School in January 1954, and graduated in July. In 1957, in %u201cProject Bullet,%u201d he made the first ever nonstop supersonic flight across the United States, traveling from Los Angeles to New York in three hours and 23 minutes.To counter Russia%u2019s lead in the Space Race, NASA announced the formation of Project Mercury on December 17, 1958. There were 508 applicants hoping to be astronauts, and NASA required each to meet seven criteria. A man had to be 1) a test-pilot-school graduate 2) in excellent physical shape, 3) less than 40-years-old, 4) shorter than 5 feet 11 inches, 5) qualified as a jet pilot, with 6) at least 1,500 hours flying time, and 7) possessing a bachelor degree in engineering. Glenn met all seven points, and on April 9, 1959 he became one of America%u2019s first seven astronauts%u2014and eventually the first to orbit the earth.After his historic orbital flight, NASA chose not to risk the life of an astronaut as popular as Glenn, so he was grounded. Frustrated, he resigned and served as a vice president of Royal Crown Cola, then was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1974. At the age of 77, on October 29, 1998, he finally left the bounds of earth for the second time%u2014in the space shuttle Discovery, as the oldest person to enter space. In 1999, he retired from the Senate after four consecutive terms in office, a record for the state of Ohio. He died at the age of 95 in 2016, with no cause of death disclosed. He was survived by his wife of 76 years.The idea for a Project Mercury stamp originated with James F. Kelleher, Special Assistant to the Postmaster General, but