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“I counted everything. I counted the steps to the road, the steps up to church, the number of dishes and silverware I washed … anything that could be counted, I did.”

Source: NASA feature “The Girl Who Loved to Count”, 24 November 2015

Context In a NASA profile published the day President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, she recalled her childhood love of counting in West Virginia.

Portrait of Katherine Johnson
Katherine JohnsonUnited States · 1918–2020
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