[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 127 (Monday, July 20, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E649]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         HONORING JEANNE PEDIGO

                                 ______
                                 

                        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.

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