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      • A Family of Good Women
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      • Last Trial Boone Pickens
      • Left
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      • Little Sky Bear
      • Man Who Thought like Ship
      • No Saints Here
      • Old Alcalde
      • Poems of Rilke
      • Real World TX Politics
      • Richard Coke: Texan
      • Runners
      • Second Lives
      • Someday Belongs to Us
      • The Big Empty
      • The Bugbear Hunter
      • The Mushroom Girl
      • The Nectar Dancer
      • The Rise of the Mad March
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      • Voices of Camptown
      • Well of Deception
      • Why We Struggle
      • Wolfe -Being Ninety
    • Audio Books
    • MEDIA & EVENTS
    • Podcast
    • Contact/Submissions
Stoney Creek Publishing
  • Home
  • About
  • Books
    • A Family of Good Women
    • Art of Farming
    • Aviation Therapy
    • Barber, Astronaut, Golf
    • Beowulf
    • Best General in Civil War
    • Bound in Silence
    • Bullets in the Water
    • Cassandra & the Night Sky
    • DeConstructed
    • Dangerous Latitudes
    • George P. Mitchell
    • Ghostly Bugles
    • Grinders
    • Island Intern
    • Last Trial Boone Pickens
    • Left
    • Little Hatchet
    • Little Sky Bear
    • Man Who Thought like Ship
    • No Saints Here
    • Old Alcalde
    • Poems of Rilke
    • Real World TX Politics
    • Richard Coke: Texan
    • Runners
    • Second Lives
    • Someday Belongs to Us
    • The Big Empty
    • The Bugbear Hunter
    • The Mushroom Girl
    • The Nectar Dancer
    • The Rise of the Mad March
    • Under the Gulf Coast Sun
    • Voices of Camptown
    • Well of Deception
    • Why We Struggle
    • Wolfe -Being Ninety
  • Audio Books
  • MEDIA & EVENTS
  • Podcast
  • Contact/Submissions

The Barber, The Astronaut, and the Golf Ball

By Barbara Radnofsky & Ed Supkis

                                                                  AMAZON BESTSELLER!


“Brings back the glory days of the U.S. Space Program and the importance of the ‘little people’ who made it happen. We see stern Shepard in a new and admirable light – in his high regard for the vast team of dedicated supporters who enabled astronauts to succeed.”

                                                                                          —Charles Duke, Apollo 16 lunar module pilot


In 1971, famed astronaut Alan Shepard returned from the moon and went to get a haircut. Before settling into the barber’s chair in Webster, Texas, near NASA’s Mission Control, Shepard gave his longtime barber and friend, Carlos Villagomez, an autographed golf ball.


During his Apollo 14 moonwalk just days earlier, Shepard had conducted a world-famous demonstration of gravity by hitting a golf ball in an out-of-this-world sand trap. It took him two tries.


Carlos, a Navy combat veteran and barber for numerous astronauts, says Shepard  gave him the ball immediately after he returned to earth and was released from quarantine.
Had Shepard taken a third ball to the moon? And did he give it to his barber as a token of their long friendship?


The debate provides a backdrop for The Barber, The Astronaut, and the Golf Ball, a story of two extraordinary men and their lasting friendship. The book is based on recollections of Carlos himself, the authors—both children of NASA scientists—as well as other astronauts, memorabilia experts, and family and friends of Shepard, who died in 1998.  


Is the ball one of the most significant pieces of sports memorabilia in history, or simply a gift of enduring friendship? Did the barber’s golf ball fly to the moon?


In seeking the answers, this extensively researched account of NASA history provides readers with insight into some of America’s greatest space explorers, including Michael Collins, Deke Slayton, and Charles Duke.


The Barber, The Astronaut, and the Golf Ball offers a rare glimpse behind the scenes of America’s space program at its pinnacle and shows the ordinary people who supported one of the nation’s most monumental scientific endeavors.

ISBN (paper): 979-8-9891203-4-5

ISBN (ebook): 979-8-9891203-5-2

$22.95

Biography

202 pp 

Available

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Barbara Radnofsky

Barbara Radnofsky

Barbara Radnofsky

Barbara Radnofsky is a writer, mediator, teacher and lawyer. She was named the Outstanding Young Lawyer of Texas in 1988. Practicing on both sides of the docket, she’s been listed for more than thirty years in “Best Lawyers in America” in multiple areas. She’s the author of A Citizen’s Guide to Impeachment, a nonpartisan explanation of U.S. constitutional impeachment history and practice.


Ed Supkis

Barbara Radnofsky

Barbara Radnofsky

Ed Supkis MD is a board-certified anesthesiologist specializing in cardiac anesthesia, and he worked with Dr. Michael DeBakey and his associates for over a decade. He then practiced anesthesia at MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he served as Director of Quality Assurance for the Division of Anesthesiology and as Medical Director of Respiratory Care for the Division of Surgery and Anesthesiology. 


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