Undergraduate degree in physics from Berry College in Mount Berry, Ga., in 1961 and a master's degree in physics in 1968 from the University of Alabama in Huntsville; in 1989, she received her doctorate in materials engineering from Auburn University in Alabama; was Director of the Materials and Processes Laboratory at the Marshall Center; since November 2005 retired; hobbies: genealogy research, gardening, reading and fishing; semi finalist for the first Spacelab selection group, but not selected.