Our admiration of John Glenn has less to do with trail-blazing feats and everything to do with his 70-year marriage to his wife, Annie.
"The Right Stuff" author Tom Wolfe called John Glenn "the last true national hero America has ever had." The Marine Corps pilot had flown 59 combat missions in World War II and 90 missions in Korea, but he cemented his hero status in a very different war. Glenn made history in February 1962, in the shadow of the Cold War's "space race" with Russia, when he blasted into space to become the first American to orbit the earth.We both used to get lumps in our throat while watching launches and landings of the space shuttles, so a clean-cut flyboy like John Glenn is our kind of hero. But our admiration of Glenn has less to do with trail-blazing feats and everything to do with his 70-year marriage to his wife, Annie.As portrayed in the movie "The Right Stuff," the Mercury 7 astronauts were chick magnets, and female groupies relished the challenge of bagging the rocket men. But not John Glenn, who lost popularity among his fellow astronauts for calling them on their marital indiscretions. In an article in the New York Times 19 months ago, as part of festivities marking the fiftieth anniversary of that history-making flight, writer John Noble Wilford noted the Glenn marriage, then at 69 years, had withstood "the turbulence of spaceflight and politics" (Glenn went on to become a four-term senator from Ohio).Wilford made a beautiful observation: "From the time they came to public attention, each has seemed the other's center of gravity."John Glenn has said he and his wife were "childhood sweethearts." But that is almost a misnomer, with his words that because their parents were friends, he and Annie "practically grew up in the same playpen" and "never knew a time when we didn't know each other."Annie told an interviewer, "You know, growing up together as we did, all I can say is that we just enjoyed each other. And even now we like to be together. Every now and then we'll have an argument  -  everybody has arguments. But never in 69 years have we had a fight."One of their secrets to a good marriage may be unexpected: Annie Glenn is John Glenn's hero. From childhood, she struggled with a profoundly debilitating stutter, trying countless therapies and techniques to overcome it. Finally, in her fifties, she found a treatment method that worked.In an essay Glenn wrote for the book "My Hero: Extraordinary People on the Heroes Who Inspire Them," he said, "I saw Annie's perseverance and strength through the years and it just made me admire her and love her even more. It takes guts to operate with a disability; I don't know if I would have had the courage to do all the things that Annie did so well."Annie is his hero, John presumably is her hero, and together, they are our heroes.James Burg, Ph.D., is an associate professor at Indiana University-Purdue, Fort Wayne. His wife, Audora, is a freelance writer. You may contact them at .