Katherine Johnson, a native of White Sulphur Springs and a pioneer in the American space program, received the United States' highest civilian honor on Tuesday.
Johnson was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for a 33-year career as a NASA mathematician in which she played a key role in some of the most historic space flights of all time.
In the East Room of the White House on Tuesday, with President Barack Obama looking on, Johnson sat next to Willie Mays, as the citation for her Medal of Freedom was read.
"With her razor-sharp mathematical mind, Katherine G. Johnson helped broaden the scope of space travel, charting new frontiers for humanity's explorations of space and creating new possibilities for all humankind," the citation read. "From sending the first American to space, to the first moon landing, she played a critical role in many of NASA's most important milestones. Katherine G. Johnson refused to be limited by society's expectations of her gender and race, while expanding the boundaries of humanity's reach."
Johnson was one of 17 Americans awarded the Medal of Freedom on Tuesday, alongside people like Mays; Steven Spielberg, James Taylor, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, the longest-serving woman in Congressional history, and Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman elected to Congress.
The medal is given to individuals who have made "especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."
Johnson was born 97 years ago in White Sulphur Springs.
"Growing up in West Virginia, Katherine Johnson counted everything," Obama said. "She counted steps, she counted dishes, she counted the distance to the church."
But after eighth grade, she ran out of grades to count. At 14, as a young black woman in southern West Virginia, there was no more local schooling available to her.
She moved to Institute and enrolled at the historically black West Virginia State College. She graduated at 18. A professor encouraged her to be a research mathematician.
"Where will I get a job?" she asked, relaying her memory during a 2008 interview.
"That will be your problem," he responded.
That remained a problem for about 15 years, while she worked as a teacher.
In 1953 Johnson was earning $100 a month, when the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics began hiring black women to do mathematical work and she was hired.
In 1958 the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics became the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA.
Three years later, Alan Shepard flew a Mercury spacecraft 116 miles above the earth's surface, the first American in space.
Katherine Johnson had done the calculations, charting his path.
"When they said they wanted the capsule to come down at a certain place, they were trying to compute when it should start," she recalled in 2008. "I said, 'Let me do it. You tell me when you want it and where you want it to land, and I'll do it backwards and tell you when to take off.' That was my forte."
A year later, John Glenn orbited the earth three times, at speeds greater than 17,000 miles an hour. Glenn was the third American in space, but the first flight on which the ship's trajectory was calculated by computer.
They weren't quite certain about the computer flight path, so they had Johnson double check all the calculations.
"So, if you think your job is pressure packed," Obama joked on Tuesday.
She helped calculate the flight trajectory that put Neil Armstrong on the moon.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden called Johnson "one of the greatest minds ever to grace our agency or our country."
In 1960 she co-authored a technical paper called, "The Determination of Azimuth Angle at Burnout for Placing a Satellite over a Selected Earth Position." She would go on to publish 25 more scientific papers.
"Because of the trail she blazed, young Americans like my granddaughters can pursue their own dreams without a feeling of inferiority," Bolden said. "A true American pioneer who helped our space program advance to new heights, while advancing humanity's march of progress ever forward."
Reach David Gutman at david.gutman@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5119 or follow @davidlgutman on Twitter.