Orlando Sentinel 150: Monday Memory of Astronaut John Young’s Orlando homecoming

In 1965, Orlando’s own John Young did not have a parkway named after him. He had yet to walk on the moon. He had yet to fly Space Shuttle Columbia on its debut mission.

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But he had flown to space along with Gus Grissom on the first crewed mission of the Gemini program on March 23, 1965. The duo launched on Gemini 3 from what then Cape Kennedy’s Launch Complex 19 atop a Titan II rocket aboard the capsule dubbed “Molly Brown” for a three-orbit mission that took a little under five hours before they splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean.

It marked a major step in NASA’s race to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade, and it gave Orlando a reason to celebrate.

While born in San Francisco in 1930, Young’s family moved to Orlando when he was 6 years old. He attended Princeton Elementary in College Park and graduated from Orlando High School, which is now Howard Middle School, in 1948.

Thousands gathered for John Young Day on April 25, 1965, which featured a parade and ceremony atop the Robert Meyer Motor Inn overlooking Lake Eola.

In attendance was Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and wife Muriel, who commented Orlando looked a lot like the Humphreys’ home state of Minnesota with so many lakes.

The event was covered in depth by both the Orlando Evening Star with the headline “Orlando ‘Young’ At Heart” and next morning’s Orlando Sentinel leading with “John Young Comes Home To Orlando.” Both papers deployed photographers stationed along the parade route that ran down Orange Avenue and past City Hall.

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Here is the coverage for the Sentinel staff writer Elvis Lane from the Sunday, April 25, 1965 edition under the subhead, “Hero Calls Welcome Most Wonderful.”

Orlandoans by the thousands yesterday cheered the return of John Young to the hometown of his youth.

And the usually taciturn Young responded with probably the longest public speech of his life – three and a half minutes.

The slim astronaut with the crew haircut told the huge crowd gathered at Lake Eola Park in front of the Robert Meyer Motor Inn:

“This is the best, the most wonderful, the friendliest, the warmest and the most enthusiastic reception I’ve ever received.”

Dignitary after dignitary, including Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, praised the 34-year-old Orlandoan for his March 23 three-orbital flight with Gus Grissom in the Gemini-Titan capsule, popularly known as the Molly Brown.

John Young and the other astronauts have to be more than excellent, Humphrey declared. They have to be perfect.

“The have to be AOK, not just OK, or they don’t come back,” the vice president continued.

Mayor Robert S. Carr, when he hung a City of Orlando award around Young’s neck, beamed as he announced:

“Orlando is bursting with pride. Your heroic achievement is engraved on the hearts of the people in this area.”

Humphrey also did some jesting.

“I’m part of the Young-Grissom team. They go into orbit and I handle parades. I started with them at Cape Kennedy, guided them at Washington and went with them to New York and Chicago.

“At first, I told John he needed quite a bit of training at handshaking and waving.”

Then Humphrey grinned.

“Today I noticed that John Young was as good at waving and handshaking as any politician.”

The people lined along the street as the motorcade passed were, for the most part, friendly and informal.

A demonstration was given at Lake Eola of how the Molly Brown had a collar attached to it to keep it from sinking and how astronauts Young and Grissom were taken from the sea.

M. Sgt. Ted Hawkins and T. Sgt. Robert F. Johnson of the Air Rescue Command – they were the pair who reached the Molly Brown when it landed just 60 miles off course – narrated by mike just what the operations were all about.

A large helicopter hovered near the mock Molly Brown in Lake Eola and frogmen dropped into the lake to wrap the collar around the capsule.

The alumni of Georgia Tech, Young’s alma mater where he majored in aeronautical engineering, presented Young with a scroll.

A large painting of Young in a space suit, done by Bill Orr, Maitland artist, was presented to Mrs. Young.

Young and Grissom were the first two U.S. spacemen to orbit together and their flight was the first takeoff of American astronauts in almost two years.

At first, Young grinned when Mayor Carr draped the award, attached to a red, white and blue ribbon around his neck. Then he became serious.

It takes thousands upon thousands of people working together to put a Gemini-Titan into orbit, he explained. “No one knows this better than we (astronauts) do.”

So many people in Central Florida have contributed so much to the space program that probably “each of you here deserve a chunk,” (of this medal) Young said.

The ceremonies took place from a grandstand at the Robert Meyer overlooking Lake Eola Park, where the applauding crowd had gathered.

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Young immediately grinned again.

“I’m willing to make a space flight every year if it means I can come back to Orlando.”

And, he hastened to add, he wouldn’t expect a medal every time he returned.

The accolade which brought the loudest applause came from Humphrey at the Orlando Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon, attended by some 600 persons in the Cherry Plaza Hotel.

“John Young and the other astronauts make us all proud to be Americans,” the vice president said.

At the luncheon, Gov. Haydon Burns presented Young with a plaque bearing the seal of the State of Florida.

The list of public officials and their wives on hand Orlando’s John Young Day seemed almost endless.

To start with just a few, there were Sen. George Smathers, Cong. Ed Gurney, Mrs. Hubert Humphrey, Mrs. Hayden Burns and Mrs. Robert S. Carr.

John Young’s attractive wife, Barbara, rode in the lead car of the motorcade with the astronaut and Humphrey.

She didn’t wave often to the people lined along Orange and Magnolia Avenues. She had to hold on to her wide-brimmed black straw hat to keep it from blowing off.

In another car, right behind, were Young’s father and stepmother, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Young.

The children of the Youngs, Sandy 8, and Johnny, 6, also attended the ceremonies in the park.

John Young, on a few occasions, bubbled with dry wit, if that’s possible.

When Curt Stanton, Chamber of Commerce president, presented him with credentials making him an honorary member of that organization, Young quipped:

“I can’t get those in a space suit.”

Young looked at them again. “But they sure are beautiful.”

The best of plans go amiss and yesterday was no exception.

The convertible in which Young, his wife and the vice president were to ride couldn’t get its top down. There was a rush to transfer the occupants and the signs identifying them to another car.

While waiting in an auto for Humphrey to arrive, so the motorcade could start, Young was all butterfingers as he tried to pin a corsage on his wife. She took over, but she, too, failed, and Young finally managed to pin it on her.

Sen. Smathers introduced Humphrey at Lake Eola and at the Cherry Plaza.

“I defy any man or any woman who ever worked with Humphrey to say he or she didn’t qcquire a great respect of his intelligence, his courage and his agility,” he told the gathering at Lake Eola.

Later, at the Cherry Plaza, Smathers elaborated.

“When I was first elected Sen. Humphrey was not one of my favorite people. But I’ve since learned to know and respect him. He is a liberal who sees that there are two side to every question. I am proud that I seconded his nomination to be vice president.”

But the person who could be elected to any office in the land now, Smathers told the Lake Eola gathering, is John Young.

Humphrey who announced at the Cherry Plaza that he did not come here to engage in impassioned oratory, did just that and he stirred the crowd.

“John Young and people like him make history and that’s the American of today,” Humphrey began.

“We can’t live on the glories of yesterday. We must move toward the future and that’s what space exploration is about. It takes courage and adventure to look at new horizons.”

Then the vice president inserted:

“The Great Society is one better than what we have now.”

And, just as quickly, he returned to his exact theme.

“This age is one which challenges people to do better – we cannot get by on our past. We’re big, and sometimes we’re clumsy, but we must keep moving forward.

“We don’t have time for tired people, for bewildered people. Not if we’re to protect human freedom, human dignity and preserve free enterprise.”

Young moved to Orlando in 1936 – when he was 6 – and was graduated from Memorial Junior High and Orlando High. He played football, ran on the track team, made excellent grades and won high honors.

Upon graduation from Georgia Tech, he entered the Navy and first served aboard a destroyer. Later he was graduated from Pensacola NASA. In 1962 he set a world speed climb in a Navy jet – 98,452.2 feet in 371.43 seconds.

That same year he was selected to become an astronaut.

Navy jets from Sanford NAS took part in yesterday’s ceremonies. At exactly 11:30 a.m. – just when the schedule said they would – 12 jets in close formation roared over Lake Eola.

Also in the motorcade and attending the ceremonies at Lake Eola and the luncheon at the Cherry Plaza Hotel were:

Martin Andersen, publisher of Orlando Daily Newspapers, Inc.; Merritt Preston, of NASA; Col. R. G. Olsen, NASA; Col. Allison Brooks, T. Sgt. Robert F. Johnson and M. Sgt. Ted Hawkins, all of Air Rescue Service Command; Curt Stanton, Claude A. West and W. Delaney Way Jr., Orlando Area Chamber of Commerce; City Commissioners George Barker, Doug Barned, John Newsom and W.M. Sanderlin.

Also County Commissioners John Talton, James T. Cooper, Clifford R. Freeman and F.B. Surguine Jr.; State Sen. Beth Johnson, and State Reps. Henry Land, Bob Alligood, John L. Ducker and Robert Elrod; Col. William Brown, Orlando AFB commander; Col. Earl L. Johnson, commander, 360th Bomb Wing, McCoy AFB; Ben Oehlert, Committee of 100; Floyd Bowen and Willard Peebles, State Road Board.

More stories and features from the Orlando Sentinel’s 150 years of covering Central Florida can be found at OrlandoSentinel.com/150. Sign up for our free history newsletter at OrlandoSentinel.com/newsletters

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This story was originally published September 14, 2026 at 6:06 AM.