Leona Harriet (Woods) Libby (1919 - 1986)

Ancestors

Biography

Leona Harriet Woods (August 9, 1919 – November 10, 1986) was an American physicist who helped build the first nuclear reactor and the first atomic bomb. After marriage she was known as Leona Woods Marshall and Leona Woods Marshall Libby. ^[1][2]

Leona was the daughter of Weightstill Amos Woods and Mary Louise Holderness Woods.^[3][4][5]

The Wikipedia article on her summarizes her as^[1]:

"At age 23, she was the youngest and only female member of the team which built and experimented with the world's first nuclear reactor (then called a pile), Chicago Pile-1, in a project led by her mentor Enrico Fermi. In particular, Woods was instrumental in the construction and then utilization of Geiger counters for analysis during experimentation. She was the only woman present when the reactor went critical. She worked with Fermi on the Manhattan Project, and, together with her first husband John Marshall, she subsequently helped solve the problem of xenon poisoning at the Hanford plutonium production site, and supervised the construction and operation of Hanford's plutonium production reactors."

For her work, she was recognized by Mademoiselle Magazine as a "Woman of the Year" for 1946; the only nuclear physicist to earn such an honor from them.^[6]

Birth Family

In the 1940 US Federal Census, we find her listed with her family :

1. Weightstill Woods 58 - lawyer
2. Mary H Woods 49
3. Peter H Woods 26 - rate setter -
4. Leona H Woods 20 - postgraduate education - laboratory helper - university
5. Mary Jenee Woods 18
6. Cicely Woods 17
7. Weightatill W Woods 14

Marriages

Leona Woods first married the physicist, John Marshall, Jr. in July 1943.^[1] Two sons, Peter Marshall, and John Marshall III, were born to this union. They chose not to follow in their parents footsteps, going into the arts; in 1976 they were running a theatre in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. ^[7]

In 1966 she divorced John Marshall and on December 13th of the same year married Nobel laureate chemist Willard Frank Libby.^[1][8][9]

Death

Leona Harriet Woods Libby, born 9 Aug 1919 at La Grange, Cook County, Illinois, died on 10 Nov 1986 (aged 67) at Santa Maria, Los Angeles County, California.^[10][11][12]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leona_Woods Wikipedia entry on Leona Woods Marshall Libby
2. ↑ "Illinois, Cook County, Birth Certificates, 1871-1949," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N772-CD4 : 18 May 2016), Leona Harriett Woods, 09 Aug 1919; Proviso, Cook, Illinois, United States, reference/certificate 36, Cook County Clerk, Cook County Courthouse, Chicago; FHL microfilm 1,308,570.
3. ↑ Leona Marshall Libby United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014
4. ↑ 1920 United States Federal Census La Grange Park, Cook, Illinois
5. ↑ Ancestry.com. Cook County, Illinois, Birth Certificates Index, 1871-1922 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Name: Leona Harriett Woods Birth Date: 9 Aug 1919 Birth Place: Proviso Gender: Female Father: Weighstill Woods Mother: Mary Holderess FHL Film Number: 1308570
6. ↑ Walla Walla Union Bulletin (Walla Walla, Washington) 1945 December 28
7. ↑ Salt Lake Tribune, The (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1976 February 12
8. ↑ https://www.famousscientists.org/willard-frank-libby/
9. ↑ Albuquerque Tribune (Albuquerque, New Mexico) 1966 December 13; Page B-10
10. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #10284901
11. ↑ The Constitution Tribune (Chillicothe, Missouri) 1986 November 12
12. ↑ Ancestry.com. California, Death Index, 1940-1997 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000. Name: Leona Marshall Libby [Leona Marshall Woods] Social Security #: 347221265 Gender: Female Birth Date: 9 Aug 1919 Birth Place: Illinois Death Date: 10 Nov 1986 Death Place: Los Angeles Mother's Maiden Name: Holderness Father's Surname: Woods