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[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E649]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HONORING JEANNE PEDIGO
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HON. H. MORGAN GRIFFITH
of virginia
in the house of representatives
Monday, July 20, 2020
Mr. GRIFFITH. Madam Speaker, I rise to honor Jeanne Hann Pedigo of
Salem, Virginia, who passed away on July 3, 2020 at the age of 91.
Jeanne was a brilliant engineer in the field of aviation as well as an
active participant in Salem's community life.
Jeanne was born in Roanoke, Virginia, to Thomas and Mildred Hann on
November 29, 1928, the same day Thanksgiving was celebrated that year.
She graduated from Andrew Lewis High School in 1946 and subsequently
attended Lincoln Memorial University, where she earned a Bachelor of
Science degree in mathematics, physics, and drama as well as a Bachelor
of Arts in Spanish, English, and history.
Aviation became her life's work. She started at the National Advisory
Committee for Aeronautics, the predecessor agency to NASA. While at
Langley Field, she researched airflow on experimental fighter aircraft.
She then joined North American Aviation and continued her research
career in California. The projects she worked on included the F-86
Sabre, F-100 Super Sabre, and stellar supervised guidance systems for
unmanned missiles. Jeanne also attended night school at the University
of Southern California.
In 1953, Jeanne was spending Christmas at home. She went on a blind
date with William Pedigo, who proposed to her the next day. She
accepted three days later and they married four months later. They
would remain married for 58 years until his death in 2012.
In 1970, Virginia Governor Linwood Holton appointed Jeanne to the
Virginia Aviation Adviso1y Board, now the Virginia Aviation Board. She
was reappointed several times by later governors, Democrat and
Republican, and in 1981 Governor John Dalton named her the first female
chairman. Jeanne left the board for the private sector in 1986, working
at Campbell and Paris Engineers as Director of Business Planning and
Governmental Affairs. Governor Jim Gilmore appointed her for another
stint on the Aviation Board in 1998, and she served until 2002.
Jeanne pursued a variety of interests outside of her career in
aviation, including numerous community activities and hobbies. She was
involved in the YWCA, Girl Scouts, Greene Memorial Church Chancel and
Concert choirs, Covenant Presbyterian Church choir, Beta Sigma Phi
sorority, Roanoke airport support groups, the Air Force Association,
and the International Rotary Club, The Republican Committees of both
Roanoke City and County benefited from her service, as did candidates
for the Virginia General Assembly. She also gardened, read often, and
studied the genealogy of her family.
Survivors of Jeanne include her two daughters, Linda Jean Pedigo and
JoAnn P. Crouch, two grandchildren, Zachariah Crouch and Lindsey Crouch
Streng, and two great-grandchildren, Skyler Streng and Blaire Streng.
The author Tom Wolfe famously wrote of the ``right stuff' possessed
by the flight test pilots of the postwar era and early space program--
the blend of skill and confidence required to stand out in the field.
Jeanne Pedigo showed in her own way that she, too, had the right stuff,
using her formidable intellect and abilities to build an exceptional
career in the field of aviation.
____________________