If you search hard enough every once in a while you will
find a true gem of a person and with them, a story. Cece Bibby is one of those
gems. As a graphic artist performing contract work for NASA in the early
1960's, Cece had a ringside seat to the beginnings of manned spaceflight.
Cece was an employee for Chrysler Corporation, which was a sub contractor for NASA. Cece worked as the only woman artist in the graphics department while at Cape Canaveral. Cece worked on everything from instruction manuals to artistically interpreting scientists' and engineers' ideas for presentations.
The above drawing of an optical tracking system is from Cece's portfolio. This particular piece shows the quality of Cece's work as a draftsman. Cece told me that she worked on instruction manuals that included a drawing, such the above work, for equipment that was used in tracking missiles launched from the Cape.
In addition to her duties of providing artwork for NASA publications, Cece was also assigned to design and paint the mission insignia for the space flight of John Glenn. As Cece would tell it, she was assigned the job because her boss figured that, as a woman, Cece had the best handwriting in the art department. There is more to this story which can be found at the following links at Collectspace or Space.com
http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-080705a.html
http://www.space.com/news/cs_050909_bibby_bio.html
John
Glenn wanted a different mission insignia rather then the stenciled and spray
painted logo that was done for both the Shepard and Grissom flights. Cece was
assigned to assist Glenn with his request for a different insignia. Once Glenn
approved her design, then he requested that she paint the design on the capsule
and thus Cece became the first woman to work on a rocket gantry.
The
famous "Naked Lady" pictured about came about as the result of a dare
and almost resulted in Cece's being fired. Gus Grissom was watching Cece design
and paint the mission insignia for John Glenn's capsule. One day as Cece saw
Gus at the astronaut office in Hangar S, Gus told Cece that she should really
"paint a naked lady on the Boy Scout's capsule." Cece said that she
could get fired for such a prank. Gus called her chicken. As an orphan, Cece
learned that a dare was a serious matter and not to be taken lightly. From that
beginning came the "Naked Lady" drawing. After Cece drew the picture,
Sam Beddingfield helped install it in Glenn's spacecraft. Although Glenn saw
the drawing and enjoyed the joke, Cece's superiors didn't find it humorous at
all and attempted to fire her. The Mercury 7 astronauts stood up for her. Cece
told me that Gus Grissom told Rocco Petrone that he put her up to the practical
joke. In the end, Cece stayed on the job.
The
first drawing was done for the initial launch attempt in January. After the
controversy caused by the first drawing, Cece drew another lady shown above.
The drawing was placed in Glenn's capsule for the next launch attempt which was
successful and launched Glenn into Earth orbit on February 20, 1962. John's
launch was the same day as Cece's birthday.
Scott
Carpenter asked Cece to design the mission insignia for America's second manned
orbital flight. Scott had picked the name Aurora for his flight. Cece used a
design of multi colored rings to depict the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights.
She designed the rings with jagged edges to imitate the movement and electric
feeling of the Aurora Borealis.
The insignia was also an experiment. It was decided to try various different
brands of paint when Cece was applying the word "Aurora" to the
capsule's shingled shell. The objective was to see which paints would survive
the heat generated by reentry of the Mercury spacecraft. Cece told me that only
the two "A's" and the symbolic ring design survived the mission.
After
the sensation caused by Glenn's "Naked Lady," Scott Carpenter kept
asking Cece if she was going to draw a naked lady for him. As Cece tells the
story, Scott had a way of pronouncing naked as sounding like
"nekkid." Cece decided to draw a "Nekkid Lady" for Scott
too.
The story behind the above drawing is that Scott was a guitar player and one of
his favorite songs of the time was "Yellow Bird." The song, with a
tropical flair, was very popular in the early 1960's. It was Scott's signature
song, which he played frequently to the point where Wally Schirra complained
that was all he sang. Cece gave Scott his "Nekkid Lady," but included
a guitar along with a jab about always playing the song.
Scott
would later express his appreciation of Cece's work on his mission logo.
The
third and last mission logo that Cece designed and painted on a Mercury
spacecraft was Wally Schirra's Sigma 7 insignia. Wally had come to Cece with
the name "Sigma" which is a mathematical term meaning the "sum
of." Wally felt that these flights were the sum of all the engineering,
designing, testing and contruction that encompassed the entire Mercury Project.
Wally wanted to honor all the people that helped him make his flight.
Cece made up a couple of designs for
Wally's review. One of those designs was the famous design that included the
Greek symbol for Sigma. Wally really liked the fact that Cece came up with the
Greek symbol, which is used frequently in the engineering world, instead of the
actual spelling of the word. He felt that Cece's design best represented his
mission goals to make his flight a most precise flight.
There was no "Naked Lady" on Wally's flight. It turns out that just
before Wally's mission, NASA contracted out a job to write and produce a manual
on gantry safety. The manual was completed and several hundred copies were
produced and distributed to members of the gantry crews. Unbeknowst to NASA, an
artist from that art department had airbrushed a topless buxom blond beauty
into the middle of a group of serious looking men standing in a gantry elevator
demonstrating the proper techniques of riding an elevator. Naturally, the
bosses initially suspected Cece as the culpit, but luckily for her, the
contract had been given to another company and she was absolved of any
wrongdoing. After that incident, Cece gave up the "Naked Lady"
tradition.
Cece
also volunteered to create the logo for NASA's employee magazine titled
Spaceport News. The above cover is from Cece's art portfolio. The cover also
shows the design she did for the Christmas edition.
Cece
also did some of the artwork for individual articles in the Space News Roundup
newspaper. If you were to look closely at the above artwork, then you will see
Cece's name on each of the works.
There
was an U.S. Air Force squadron of Lockheed U-2 spyplanes based at Patrick Air
Force Base in the early 1960's during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Cece even dated
one of the pilots of the squadron at the time.
The story behind the above photograph is that the particular U-2 plane shown in
the picture was a mechanical disaster. Evidently, the plane had a nasty habit
of having a midair malfunction during flights over Cuba. The pilots hated the
plane and nicknamed it, "The Olde Lemon." They got Cece to paint a
lemon with the nickname on the plane. Every time the plane had a malfunction,
it would be shipped back to the Lockheed plant for repair. Lockheed would
repair the aircraft and return it, but each time they repaired it they would
paint over Cece's artwork. The squadron would call Cece and back she would come
to repaint the logo back on the plane.
Nobody knows what happened to that particular plane.
There is a little known story that Cece told me about the U-2 spyplanes out of
Patrick AFB. Her boyfriend of the time flew spy photographic missions over
Cuba. Upon his return from a mission, he would fly low over Cece's home to let
her know that he was home safe after a long night mission over enemy territory.
The U-2 jet engine had a very distinctive howling noise that would let Cece
know that her boyfriend was returning safe and sound. There was a small problem
in that the engine noice generated by the U-2 woke other people up including
Alan Shepard. Cdr. Shepard complained to the squadron commander about the
noise. The colonel, who knew about the homeward bound signal, advised Alan that
this was a national security issue and that there was nothing he could do about
it. Cece always enjoyed that little "Gotcha" over Alan and he never
knew the real story about the early morning fly overs.
The
above letter of recommendation is one of Cece's proudest possessions. The
teletype letter is from Gordon Cooper to a prospective employer of Cece's. Just
read the letter and you will understand why Cece was so proud of it.
I
first learned about Cece from a fellow collector by the name of Bruce Moody,
who had found her website that told the initial story of her work. The link for
her site is listed below.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cecebibby/personal/index.htm
I had the privilege of meeting Cece
at the Sims and Hankow show in Los Angeles in 2004. I had brought Cece my copy
of her painting "Out of This World" to the show for her to certify as
the artist. Cece had been commissioned by Steven Hankow of Farthest Reaches to
paint a limited edition set of paintings showing the insignias she had designed
for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd manned orbital missions flown by the United States. I
was able to procure the 15th of a planned 15 editions of the painting. The last
five copies of the edition being signed by Glenn, Carpenter and Schirra.
Cece wasn't able to have a copy of her painting at the show, so I loaned her my
painting for her display. I was pleased to have gotten a photograph of Cece
with the painting during the show. She was pleased to have the painting and
that is where our friendship started.
At
this time, Cece has completed 9 of the 15 limited edition paintings. It
appears that the final number will remain at twelve completed "Out of this
World" paintings.
Shortly after my return from Los Angeles, I received an email from Cece. Cece
asked me if it would be alright to send my painting to her for reproduction as
a limited edition signed print. I mailed the painting to Cece and she had it
reproduced for print production. I believe the prints are still available
through Steve Hankow.
During
the 2004 Los Angeles show, Cece dragged Wally, Scott and Gordon Cooper together
for a group photograph with her and the painting. Even though she had left Cape
Canaveral by the time of Cooper's mission and did not design or paint his
mission insignia, she wanted to get the entire group together. It was the last
time Wally, Scott and Gordo were photographed as a group. Gordon Cooper passed
away a month later.
As a footnote to the above photo, Wally Schirra would pass away on May 3, 2007. Cece would follow Gordo and Wally on November 14, 2012. With Scott Carpenter's passing on October 10, 2013, they are all gone.
There is also a little back story about the "Out of this World" painting, Cece, the 2004 LA show and me. I asked Cece if she could draw one of her famous "Nikked Ladies" on the back of my edition of the painting. Cece inscribed that she did not draw "Naked Ladies" anymore. She signed and dated the inscription.
A few weeks later, she contacted me to ask if she could photograph my painting. I said, yes and sent it down to her home in Georgia. Cece let me know that she was returning the painting and that it had a surprise on it as a thank you to me. When the painting was returned, she had drawn a "Semi-Nikked Lady" on the back of the painting. Cece had a wonderful sense of humor.
In
2005, I drove down to New Jersey for the annual astronaut autograph show. Cece
asked if I could bring the painting again. I did and, by then, it was framed along with one of the paint brushes that Cece used on the painting. At the end of the show on
Sunday, she grabbed Wally, Scott and me for another group photograph.
As
this initial sketch shows, Cece researched her work. There are several copies
of this sketch with notes and ideas written all over them.
Cece turned her attention to animals. Bears, in particular, because she was living in a seasonal community in Northern Georgia. She sold her art and various crafts at a local artist guild in her town during tourist season.
The above painting is from a
proposed calendar that showed bears in seasonal events. The scene depicts a
teddy bear offering a carrot to an Easter bunny who is showing some age, since
his head has sprung off his body after his stitching has worn out. Cece has an
interesting sense of humor.
With
the onset of Glaucoma, Cece's eyesight started to fail. She switched from the
demanding effort required for painting to mosaic work. Mosaic work still
required Cece's skill as an artist.
The above picture frame is one such example of her work. In this particular example, Cece used a wooden frame to serve as a base for the grout surface and space pins that she got from various sources. Unfortunately, this is one of only two space pin themed frames that Cece made before she became ill.
One day, I received a package containing the above frame and picture of Cece, Scott, Wally and me together with her "Out of this World" painting at the Sims and Hankow show in New Jersey in 2005.
Cece is pictured here at her signing table at the 2006 Sims
and Hankow show in San Antonio, Texas. The two space pin picture frames are
shown here along with some of her other work including one of her paintings.
As an aside, Cece is holding a small ketchup bottle that Erin and Francis French thought looked like a miniature Mercury spacecraft. Cece painted the word "Ketchup7" on the bottle. The stories, jokes and "gotchas" that occurred at these shows made it such fun for Cece. She had a great time seeing old friends, renewing old acquaintances and meeting new admirers.
This last picture of Cece and me was taken at the Atlanta airport in April of 2005. We
were heading in separate directions after attending the Astronaut Hall of Fame
induction at KSC. We grabbed some poor woman, so she could take a photograph of
us together.
We had a wonderful time driving around the Cape and reliving old stories at places like Bernard's Surf, the Patrick AFB Officers Club and Sebastian Inlet. Cece was amazed at the changes that had taken place since the early days at the Cape. Her comment was that in her time, "it was all sand and Palmetto trees."
Cece and I traveled to San Antonio for another astronaut show in 2006. Unfortunately, it would be her last show. She suffered a stroke upon her return home. Cece eventually moved to an assisted living facility in 2007.
We end as we began this tribute. This photograph of Cece was taken by Bruce Moody at her residence. This is the last photograph we have of Cece before she passed away on November 14, 2012.
People come and people go. The times and places have changed, but Cece still remains a treasured gem of the early days of America's epic journey into space.
Thank you for this story, it helps me further understand all that once was at Cape Canaveral. I go to the abandoned pads for research or photographing and can often feel the history in the silent air out there. I try to mention the past in the reporting of the future so the tradition can continue.
Randy
Posted by: Randal Coppola | December 08, 2015 at 09:21 PM