Wally Funk never stopped believing she would touch the stars. On July 20, 2021, at age 82, she finally did.
Funk died last Wednesday at her apartment in Grapevine, Texas, surrounded by the people who loved her. She was 87 years old.
For most of her life, Funk fought to prove she belonged among the stars. In the early 1960s, she was one of 13 female pilots who underwent the same grueling astronaut training tests as NASA's all-male Mercury crew. They passed the same physical trials, endured the same G-force spinning chairs, and pushed their bodies through the same challenges. But because they were women, they were told they could not become astronauts.
"She was told by many, many, many men, 'No, you can't do this. No you can't do that,'" said Duff O'Dell, a Grapevine City Councilwoman and Funk's caregiver, who was beside her when she died. "And she never got mad about it. She just was more determined."
That determination carried her through decades of pioneering work. She became the first female inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration and the first female air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board. Throughout it all, she kept her eyes on the sky.
Then Amazon founder Jeff Bezos invited her aboard his Blue Origin rocket for a brief up-and-down flight from West Texas. Funk soared past the edge of space alongside Bezos, his brother Mark, and another passenger. At 82, she became the oldest woman to reach space — and the oldest person overall at the time, a record later broken by "Star Trek" actor William Shatner and Ed Dwight, America's first Black astronaut candidate, who both flew at 90.
Blue Origin called her "a pioneer in every sense of the word" in a social media post. "We were humbled to be part of her journey," the company wrote.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman shared similar sentiments: "Wally Funk never stopped believing that one day she would reach space. Her passion for flight, perseverance, and love of exploration will continue to inspire generations of Americans. Godspeed, Wally."
O'Dell, who described Funk as the most eternally optimistic person she had ever known, said Funk had fallen a few times recently and was recovering from a leg infection before her death. "It took its toll," O'Dell said.
But Funk's legacy is anything but fragile. She spent more than 60 years chasing a dream that seemed impossible — and then watched it come true. Her story reminds us that sometimes the longest journeys are the ones that matter most.