MADALYN MURRAY O'HAIR
Name: Madalyn Murray O'Hair
Born: 13 April 1919 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Died: 29 September 29, 1995 Austin, Texas, United States
Madalyn Murray O'Hair (April 13, 1919 - September 29, 1995) was an American
atheist and activist.
She is best known for the lawsuit Murray v. Curlett which led to a landmark
Supreme Court ruling and ended the practice of daily prayer in American public
schools. O'Hair later founded American Atheists and became so controversial
that, in 1964, Life magazine referred to her as "the most hated woman in America."
Madalyn Mays was born in the Beechview neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
in 1919 to Lena Christina Scholle and John Irwin Mays. As an infant, she was
baptized into the Presbyterian church. She graduated from Rossford High
School in Rossford, Ohio.
She married John Henry Roths in 1941. They separated when they both enlisted for
World War II service, he in the United States Marine Corps, she in the Women's
Army Corps (WACs). In 1945, while posted to a cryptography position in Italy,
she began an affair with an officer, William J. Murray, Jr. Murray was a married
Roman Catholic, and he refused to divorce his wife. Mays divorced Roths and
began calling herself Madalyn Murray, and gave birth to a boy she named William
J. Murray.
Murray completed a bachelor's degree from Ashland College. In 1952 she
completed a law degree from South Texas College of Law, but she failed the bar
exam and never practiced law. On November 16, 1954, she gave birth to another
son, Jon Garth Murray, by a different father.
Differing versions of this point in Murray's life exist. Some sources state that
Murray attended meetings of the Socialist Workers Party in 1957 while living in
a Baltimore townhouse with her sons, parents and brother. In 1959 she applied
for Soviet citizenship. The following year, having gotten no
response, she and her two children traveled by ship to Europe with the intention
of defecting to the Soviet embassy in Paris and residing in the Soviet Union.
The Soviets refused them entry. Murray and her sons returned to Baltimore in
1960.
Murray states that she worked for 17 years as a psychiatric social worker, and
that in 1960 she was a supervisor at the Baltimore city public welfare
department.
Name: Madalyn Murray O'Hair
Born: 13 April 1919 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Died: 29 September 29, 1995 Austin, Texas, United States
Madalyn Murray O'Hair (April 13, 1919 - September 29, 1995) was an American
atheist and activist.
She is best known for the lawsuit Murray v. Curlett which led to a landmark
Supreme Court ruling and ended the practice of daily prayer in American public
schools. O'Hair later founded American Atheists and became so controversial
that, in 1964, Life magazine referred to her as "the most hated woman in America."
Madalyn Mays was born in the Beechview neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
in 1919 to Lena Christina Scholle and John Irwin Mays. As an infant, she was
baptized into the Presbyterian church. She graduated from Rossford High
School in Rossford, Ohio.
She married John Henry Roths in 1941. They separated when they both enlisted for
World War II service, he in the United States Marine Corps, she in the Women's
Army Corps (WACs). In 1945, while posted to a cryptography position in Italy,
she began an affair with an officer, William J. Murray, Jr. Murray was a married
Roman Catholic, and he refused to divorce his wife. Mays divorced Roths and
began calling herself Madalyn Murray, and gave birth to a boy she named William
J. Murray.
Murray completed a bachelor's degree from Ashland College. In 1952 she
completed a law degree from South Texas College of Law, but she failed the bar
exam and never practiced law. On November 16, 1954, she gave birth to another
son, Jon Garth Murray, by a different father.
Differing versions of this point in Murray's life exist. Some sources state that
Murray attended meetings of the Socialist Workers Party in 1957 while living in
a Baltimore townhouse with her sons, parents and brother. In 1959 she applied
for Soviet citizenship. The following year, having gotten no
response, she and her two children traveled by ship to Europe with the intention
of defecting to the Soviet embassy in Paris and residing in the Soviet Union.
The Soviets refused them entry. Murray and her sons returned to Baltimore in
1960.
Murray states that she worked for 17 years as a psychiatric social worker, and
that in 1960 she was a supervisor at the Baltimore city public welfare
department.