"Annie-Jane-Easley" [April 23,1933-June 25,2011]

Was an African-American computer scientist,mathematician,and rocket scientist.Anna worked for the Lewis Research Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)  and its predecessor,the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA).
She was a leading member of the team which developed software for the Centaur.Rocket stage and one of the first African-Americans in her field.

She was to Bud McCroy & Willie Sims in Birmingham,Alabama.In the days before the Civil Rights Movement,educational and career opportunities for African-American children were very limited.African American children were educated separately from white children and their schools were most inferior to white schools.Annie was fortunate in that her mama told her that she could be anything she wanted but she have to work at it.She encouraged her to get a good education and from the fifth grade through high school,she attended a parochial school and was valedictorian of her graduating class.

After  high school she went to New Orleans,Louisiana,to Xavier University,then an African-American Roman Catholic University,where she majored in Pharmacy for about two years.

In 1954,she returned to Birmingham briefly.As part of of the Jim Crow Laws that established and maintained racial inequality,African Americans were required to pass an onerous literacy test and pay a poll tax in order to vote.She remembers the test given looking at her application and saying only,"You went to Xavier University.Two dollars." Subsequently,she helped other African Americans prepare for the test.

In 1963,racial segregation of Birmingham's downtown merchants ended as a result of the Birmingham Campaign,and in 1964,the twenty-fourth Amendmet outlawed the poll tax in Federal elections.It was not until 1965 that the Voting Rights Act elimated the literacy test.

Shortly thereafter she married and moved to Cleveland with the intention of continuing her studies.Unfortunately,the local university had ended its pharmacy program a short time before and no nearby alternative existed.

In 1955,she read a local newspaper article about a story on twin sisters who worked for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) as " computers" and the next day she applied for a job.Within two weeks she was hired,one of four African Americans of about 2500 employees.She began her career as a Mathematics and Computer Engineer at the NACA Lewis Propulsion Laboratory (which became NASA Lewis Research Center,1958-1999,and subsequently the John H.Glenn Research Center) in Cleveland,Ohio.She continued her education while working for the agency and in 1977,she obtained a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Cleveland State University.As part of continuing education,Anna,worked through specialization courses offered by NASA.

Her 34-year career included developing and implementing computer code that analyzed alternative power,technologies,supported the Centaur high energy conversion upper rocket stage,determine solar,wind batteries,such as those used in in electric utility vehicles.Her computer applications have been used to identify energy conversion systems that offer the improvement over commercially availiable technologies.She retired in 1989 (some sources say 1991).

Anna's work with the Centaur project helped as technological foundations for the space shuttle launches of communication,military and weather satelities.Her work contributed to the 1997 flight to Saturn of the Cassini probe,the launcher of which had the Centaur as it upper stage.