Memorial to "The First Spaceman"

Penn, Michigan

Iven Carl Kincheloe Jr. was dubbed "America's No. 1 Spaceman" when he flew a Bell X-2 to the edge of outer space on September 7, 1956 -- long before the cosmonauts and astronauts actually reached space in the early 1960s. He could have been an astronaut himself, but he died in an F-104 plane crash on July 26, 1958, only a few weeks past his 30th birthday.

Iven is buried in Virginia, beneath an unexciting tombstone in Arlington National Cemetery. His hometown in Michigan erected a much more interesting monument in his honor on November 22, 1963 -- unfortunately the same day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated -- a rock with his picture painted on it, a bronze plaque to "The First Spaceman," and an angled obelisk with a tiny chrome X-2 pointed upward, toward heaven. The monument was designed by architect William Henry Dacey, and restored in 2006.