Madalyn Murray-O'Hair

Madalyn Murray O'Hair (née Mays) born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She was a militant feminist activist, well known as the American atheist activist, founder of American Atheists, and the organization's president from 1963 to 1986. Madalyn Murray O'Hair become famous for the Murray v. Curlett lawsuit, which led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling ending official Bible-reading in American public schools in 1963. Madalyn Mays was born in the Beechview neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Lena Christina (Scholle) and John Irwin Mays. She had an older brother, John Irwin Jr. As an infant, she was baptized into the church as a Presbyterian. In 1936, she graduated from Rossford High School in Rossford, Ohio. In 1941, she married John Henry Roths. They separated when they both enlisted for World War II service, he in the United States Marine Corps, she in the Women's Army Corps. In April 1945, while posted to a cryptography position in Italy, she began a relationship with an officer, W