Busy, Busy Belles

Lynne Kelsey

Can it be autumn at last? Is it actually cooling off? Are the Liberty Belles taking it easy? The answer to the first two questions may be yes, but to the third, we state a resounding no! The Liberty Belles are as busy as ever, with new projects on the horizon, along with continuing events.

The last Friday of the month at 3:30 p.m. is the Belles’ social get-together in the lounge at the Grill, and this September saw a tremendous turnout. New friendships were formed, old ones rekindled, and a grand time was had by all.

The Liberty Belles Book Club took up If You Can Keep It, a thought-provoking book in which author Eric Metaxas makes the argument that America is a nation based on freedom and exceptionalism. Meetings are held on Monday afternoons. Contact Judy Martin-Tafoya at [email protected] for more information on future selections.

Philanthropy is part of the Liberty Belles’ mission, and those efforts continue as even more ladies donate their time to volunteer at the Twice as Nice Resale store in Denton, which benefits the Woman to Woman Pregnancy Resource Center. Several members assisted in preparing for the organization’s annual fundraising banquet and also attended the event.

A highlight of September was the Fall Luncheon. Nearly 60 Republican women attended the event in the clubhouse and enjoyed a soup and salad lunch. After, attendees were treated to a fascinating talk by Robson resident (and club member) Ann Patterson, detailing her career. With a degree in aerospace engineering from UT-Austin, Patterson worked for McDonnell Douglas as a crew training instructor on the Space Shuttle simulator. She wanted to be an astronaut but did not meet the height requirement of five feet. Not to be dissuaded, she became a test subject at the Johnson Space Center and logged many hours riding the infamous “Vomit Comet.”

Moving to NASA, Patterson worked on the Shuttle Training Aircraft, a modified corporate jet that was designed as a flying simulator. This allowed astronauts to train under real flight conditions at actual landing sites. She also continued her work as a test subject, eventually pulling 6.4 G’s in the centrifuge, helping to establish that women have better tolerance for high gravity.

Patterson eventually became a Shuttle Flight/Mission Integration Manager. She shared her perspective on the Challenger disaster and noted that the mission that was to follow it was one she had managed. She asked a thought-provoking question: What would we do? What decision would we have made if we knew the mission was doomed? There are no easy answers.

There were lighthearted anecdotes as well. Patterson’s first flight suit required eight inches to be taken out at the waist to accommodate her small figure. It was not until the first female astronauts were chosen that NASA designed smaller suits. She also told how cargo space needed to be found on an International Space Station supply mission for American toilet paper, because the Russian supplies were of (ahem) unacceptable quality.

For more information, check the calendar on the Republican Club website or email [email protected].