Isn't this a treasure!
This is the real Laurel Clark.
......................................................................
Photo at a fund raiser at the local Episcopal school near the Johnson Space Center in Houstonwhere many students from NASA families including astronauts, attend.

The headmistress of the school, Ann Decker,
donned the clown suit (her hobby) for the occasion, said "This is the person I loved. In spite of her many outstanding complishments and her great brain, she was just a fun loving gal who would have dressed in my clown suit in a minute."

In an e:mail Ann wrote, "Iain is ok, He has his moments but they seem to pass.  Jon* is learning to be a mom and he has lots of tutors. I seem to have taken HIS mother's role. Both of his parents are dead so with my gray hair, I fit. It's a sad role!"


*Laurel's husband, Jonathan B. Clark

Shuttle Columbia Physician Cmdr. Dr. Laurel Blair Salton Clark
A Mother, Surgeon and Astronaut Who Kept Risk in Perspective
..
Memorial Page
........................................................................................... <<< Biography  >>>

Before Columbia's launch, 
Dr. Laurel Clark, 41, 
said her family,
including her 8-year-old son, Iain, 
sometimes worried about her
being an astronaut. - Fox News


Preflight Interview
Email on Day Before Disaster
Laurel was on board to help with Columbia's more than 80 science experiments, including studies of astronaut health and safety, advanced technology development and Earth and space sciences.

Laurel met her husband, Jonathan B. Clark, in Scotland, where she dove with Navy divers and Navy Seals, performing medical evacuations from U.S. submarines. The Clarks lived in Houston.

Laurel Clark was an astronaut, a submarine medical officer and a flight surgeon, but "I tell my son all the time that my most important job is being his mother - ABC

Go To Columbia Re-Entry Page
Ann Decker suffered a heart attack just over a year ago and has recovered nicely up to this point.
Ann is 16 years younger than her only sister, Thelma Jean VandenBerg Herbener, who passed away in 1997.
Ann keeps in touch with her brother-in-law Gene Herbener who passed the above information
on to one his former students. This student is your web host. 3-3-2003