Who Was F. Patt Price? Life of Fred Haise’s Wife

Beyond the Capsule: The Life and Legacy of Frances “Patt” Price Haise

When history recalls the monumental era of mid-20th-century space exploration, attention is almost universally drawn upward—toward the gleaming Saturn V rockets, the cratered surface of the Moon, and the brave astronauts who donned the pressure suits. Yet, behind every landmark achievement in aerospace history exists an extensive, often unsung network of professionals and families who grounded those missions.

Among them was Frances “Patt” Price Haise (born Frances Patt Price), a dedicated NASA secretary and professional whose life intersected uniquely with one of the most famous chapters of American space history.

Early Roots in Texas

Born on January 21, 1940, in Rogers, Texas, to parents Clyde Hubert Price and Mabel Loraine Williams, Patt grew up with deep Texas roots. Raised alongside the rhythms of rural and small-town life, she was baptized at the Cego Baptist Church at the age of nine and later graduated from Bruceville-Eddy High School.

Like many women of her generation entering the workforce during the post-war boom and the dawn of the Space Age, Patt developed a strong professional skill set that eventually led her into the heart of America’s aerospace epicenter in Houston, Texas.

A Career at NASA

While the public face of NASA was dominated by engineers and flight crews, the operational success of the agency depended heavily on skilled administrative and secretarial personnel who managed the flow of critical information, coordinated communications, and kept complex departments running smoothly. Patt served in several vital secretarial positions within NASA, operating behind the scenes during the high-stakes decades of the Apollo program.

Life and Later Years

In 1979, Patt married Fred Haise, the renowned NASA astronaut best known as the Lunar Module Pilot for the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission. Fred Haise’s career spanned the transition from experimental military flight testing to the Gemini and Apollo programs, and later the Space Shuttle enterprise (through the Approach and Landing Tests). Sharing life with a high-profile astronaut meant navigating a world of public scrutiny, technological triumphs, and the unique anxieties associated with aerospace testing.