“She’s a real asset for our area, a real asset for the black community, the white community and the entire world,” Haynes said. They say despite her fame and accolades, she never forgot where she came from. Johnson visited White Sulphur Springs in 2017 for the library dedication. The library is now inside the Katherine Coleman Johnson Building, and there is a community center inside named after her father, Joshua Coleman, a well-known handyman. The road leading up to the library is now called Katherine Coleman Way. “One of our challenges is to assure that we carry on this inspirational message that children know there are great things that are possible, and we pay honor to her incredible life,” Ambrose said. Once she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama and the book and movie buzz began, Haynes along with Tom Ambrose, the president of the board of trustees for the city’s library, got to work to make sure she was honored with signage and a library dedication. Now, the City of White Sulphur Springs highlights her right back.īut for a long time, she was a hidden figure as many did not know about her or that she was from White Sulphur until much later in her life. She highlighted also the City of White Sulphur Springs.” She always wanted to highlight everyone else around her, her family. “In talking to her, she wanted to know everything about you. “She was very very down-to-earth,” Haynes said. However, those in White Sulphur Springs, like City Manager Lloyd Haynes, will remember her for her accomplishments but also for her kindness and the way she could light up a room. She went on to become part of the team that sent the first American astronaut into a successful orbit around Earth. Johnson was a West Virginia native who grew up in White Sulphur Springs. WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, WV (WOAY) – NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, whose life was portrayed in the movie Hidden Figures, died on Monday at the age of 101.
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