Service Above Self

OTHER NOTABLE PROJECTS WE HAVE PARTNERED WITH:

• Cameroon (Rotary Club of Denver) water wells and facilities for two villages.

• Cambodia (Cambodian Dream Organization) water wells and facilities for preschools.

• Kenya, Kisii (Rotary Club of Denver) building of community health clubs.

• Haiti (Locally Haiti) disaster relief.

• Nepal (Rotary Club of Bozeman) children’s education support and school supplies.

• Uganda (Rotary Club of South Je Co) water wells and facilities for preschools.

Looking to make a move?

The stakes have never been higher when it comes to making important decisions regarding the purchase or sale of real estate.

Serving clients in the foothills for 12 years Linda has earned the designation of 5 Star 5280 Top Realtor.

For all your real estate needs give her a call 303.718.7945.

BY DEB HURLEY BROBST DBROBST@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

When Laura Shepard Churchley strapped herself in the Blue Origin rocket ship to travel into space in December, she says she felt right at home.

Maybe that’s because as the daughter of Alan Shepard, the first American to travel into space, space flight is in Laura’s blood.

“It felt like I had been doing it my whole life,” she said while sitting in the living room of her Evergreen home. “I knew I would go into space. I don’t know why.”

Laura, 74, flew aboard the New Shepard named in honor of her father. In 11 minutes, the spacecraft took her and five additional crew members 66 miles above the Earth, about half the distance her father went 60 years prior in the MercuryRedstone 3. Alan was the second man and the first American to travel into space.

In 1971, Alan commanded Apollo 14 and was the fifth person to walk on the moon, hitting two golf balls while there.

“She got to follow in her dad’s footsteps,” said Laura’s husband of 25 years, Fred Churchley. “Knowing how much she loved and respected her dad, this is a full-circle moment for her — for her dad and his legacy. Five years ago, even a year ago, I didn’t think it could happen.”

Laura’s daughter, Lark Stewart, said her mom had no doubt or fear about the space flight.

“That’s how we were raised, how she was raised,” Stewart said, calling her mom generous and someone who doesn’t sit still.

“Whatever she does, she does it with a big heart and a lot of energy,” Stewart said. “If she is awake, she is on.”

A child of a NASA astronaut

Laura remembers the moment her dad told the family in 1959 that he was going to be an astronaut for the newly created NASA, noting that no one in the family knew what that meant.

“I looked up `astronaut’ in the dictionary,” she said, “and the word wasn’t there.”

She knew, though, that her dad was very excited about the prospect of being among the first seven astronauts — known as the Mercury 7 — in the country.

When Alan left for his first flight into space in 1961, Laura told him to have a good trip — similar to what her grandchildren said as she was leaving for the Blue Origin flight.

Laura, an eighth grader in boarding school, was in the middle of an English test when her dad made his first voyage into space. She says she knew everything would go well, though she was mortified at being sent to the headmaster’s house to watch the flight with a room full of the school’s dignitaries. She was talk to them.

After Alan’s flight ended, Laura said she was happy and a bit tearyeyed, not really caring anymore about the English test.

The Shepard family’s notoriety was something to get used to, and she’s been to the White House twice with her dad. There were tickertape parades, Life magazine photo spreads and people recognizing the Shepards everywhere they went.

She says NASA astronauts and their families share a special bond and keep in touch, like a huge extended family.

Laura’s move to Evergreen

Laura wound up in Evergreen thanks to astronaut Wally Schirra — “I was their second daughter” — who told her she should live here.

Laura moved in 1978 and opened a shoe store in downtown Evergreen called the “The Glass Slipper” that she operated for eight years.

However, she had been in Colorado many times before locating to Evergreen. The Shepards took two-week skiing trips each year, the only time

Laura remembers the entire family together because Alan was training all the time.

Over the years, she’s been a board member of the Evergreen Area

Chamber of Commerce, the Evergreen Arts Foundation, Hiwan Homeowners Association and the Montessori School of Evergreen.

11 Minutes In History

Laura said she was well prepared for her 11-minute space flight after

16 hours of intense training at the Blue Origin launch site in Van Horn, Texas.

As she heard the countdown, her dad’s words were in her head: “Let’s light this candle.”