Ethel Lee sat down with FOX 11 to reflect on her groundbreaking journey as the first African American woman to help physically build the first six space shuttles used by NASA.
Days after celebrating her 98th birthday, Lee's remarkable decades-long career with the orbiters' manufacturer, Rockwell International, was an unlikely path. Lee was born in Hooks, Texas in 1926. She recalls leaving school to pick potatoes as a girl; a task she greatly disliked and one that fueled her drive to pursue her education. At 16-years-old, she graduated at the top of her high school class.
Three days later, she accepted an offer with the company where she played a key role in its mock-up engineering department; pushing through various obstacles and following her instincts throughout her career."She worked with a lot of men," Daphne said. "But my grandmother’s a very tough cookie, so she went right in there with them!"Lee's resilience and determination propelled her through 32 years at Rockwell, where she was the only African American woman on her team.
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