Edward Higgins White

1930 – 1967

Life Keepsakes Service Decorations Shadow Box Also Remembered In Our Keeping

Edward Higgins White II served the U.S. Air Force. Edward was 36 years old.

How They Died

Manner Accident

Cause Multiple traumatic injuries

Biography

The first American to walk in space. On the third of June 1965 he went outside Gemini 4 for twenty-three minutes on a twenty-five-foot tether, using a hand-held oxygen gun to move. When he was ordered back in he said it was the saddest moment of his life.

He was a West Point graduate and an Air Force test pilot, the son of a general, and had been an alternate for the United States Olympic team in the four hundred metres hurdles in 1952.

He was in the middle seat of Apollo 1 on the twenty-seventh of January, at the hatch. The hatch opened inward and could not be opened against the pressure of the fire. He was found with his arms above his head, still reaching for it.

He is buried at West Point.

Keepsakes