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The Akron-born engineer who died in the Challenger explosion in 1986 was a child prodigy who became NASA's second American woman in space.
Why it matters: She's a hometown hero whose life and loss still resonate four decades later.
Five things to know about her:
✅ She skipped kindergarten, aced every subject and was one of Firestone High School's 1966 valedictorians.
She was the 16th woman in U.S. history to attain a perfect SAT score.
🎹 A piano prodigy, she considered pursuing a career as a concert pianist.
💡 She earned an electrical engineering degree from Carnegie Mellon and worked at RCA, the National Institutes of Health and the Xerox Corporation before NASA.
🚀 She flew aboard Discovery in 1984, testing the shuttle's robotic arm and flashing a handwritten "Hi Dad" from orbit.
👩🚀 She wanted to be known simply as an astronaut, not defined by gender, religion or hometown.
