O'Hair, Madalyn Murray (1919–1995)

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O'Hair, Madalyn Murray (1919–1995)

American lawyer, atheist philosopher, and social activist. Born Madalyn Mays on April 13, 1919, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; murdered in 1995; daughter of John Irvin Mays (a civil engineer) and Lena C. (Scholle) Mays; attended University of Toledo, 1936–37, University of Pittsburgh, 1938–39; Ashland College, B.A., 1948; graduate study at Western Reserve University (now Case Western Reserve University), 1948–49, and Ohio Northern University, 1949–51; awarded LL.B, South Texas College of Law, 1953; J.D., South Texas College of Law, 1954; M.P.S.W., Howard University, 1954–55; Ph.D., Minnesota Institute of Philosophy, 1971; married J. Roths, in 1941 (divorced); married William J. Murray (divorced 1950s); married Richard Franklin O'Hair (an intelligence agent), on October 18, 1965 (divorced 1976); children: (second marriage) William J. Murray III; Jon Garth Murray; (third marriage) legally adopted her granddaughter Robin Murray-O'Hair.

Served in the Women's Army Corps during World War II, achieving rank of second lieutenant; worked as psychiatric social worker (1948–64); was an attorney for the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW), Washington, D.C. (1956–59); with son, successfully sued the Baltimore Public Schools in protest of mandatory school prayer and Bible reading; served as director of the American Atheist Center (1965–77); served as director, American Atheist Radio Series (1968–77); became editor-in-chief, American Atheist Magazine (1965); co-founded, with Richard O'Hair, American Atheists, Inc. (formerly Society of Separatists) and served as secretary (1965–75) and president (1975–86).

Selected works:

Why I Am an Atheist (1965); The American Atheist (1967); What on Earth is an Atheist! (1969); Let Us Prey; an Atheist Looks at Church Wealth (1970); (ed.) The Atheist Viewpoint (1972).

Belligerent, bad-tempered and unashamedly foul-mouthed, Madalyn Murray O'Hair wore with pride her mid-1960s label of "the most hated woman in America." She earned this enmity through her self-appointed role as the country's most visible and outspoken atheist, and through her participation in one of the major Supreme Court cases of the second half of the 20th century.

America at the dawn of the 21st century routinely is cited as one of the most religious of developed countries, with poll respondents overwhelmingly affirming a belief in God and (to a somewhat lesser extent) in God's place in national and local affairs, and with politicians increasingly proffering their spiritual beliefs as a sign of their trustworthiness and electability. While the Constitution enshrines the separation of church and state, on a practical level religion pervades much of America's politics: major religious institutions lobby for or against both federal and state legislation, and groups like the Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition back political representatives with the explicit intention of affecting the tone of the country. United States currency carries the phrase "In God We Trust"; in 1954, during the Cold War, words in the Pledge of Allegiance were altered from the original "one nation, under my flag" to "one nation, under God"; presidents taking office and participants in court trials swear oaths on the Bible (though the latter may decline if they so choose). In 1963, lawsuits brought by O'Hair and her son in Baltimore and Ed Schempp and his children in Philadelphia, claiming that mandatory prayer and Bible reading in public schools violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment, went to the Supreme Court. In Abington School District v. Schempp, the Court ruled that schools were not allowed to elevate Christianity over other religions, and that forced prayer was unconstitutional; Justice Tom Clark wrote: "In the relationship between man and religion, the state is firmly committed to a position of neutrality." Battles over school prayer nonetheless continue to this day, but in the furor that ensued after the Supreme Court's decision, O'Hair grabbed firm hold of the spotlight and waged war against religion in public life.

O'Hair, who claimed to have been an atheist since the age of 12, served in the armed forces during World War II and received an extensive education at prestigious American universities. She became a lawyer and worked for a time at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare before capitalizing on her sudden notoriety to found, and loudly promote, American Atheists, Inc., to support the separation of church and state. American Atheists was the first national organization for atheists (she would later found some seven others), and as its head she pressed her case in television talk shows, college campuses, interviews, a weekly radio show and a staggering number of lawsuits. After encountering repeated resistance to her writing from publishers, in 1969 O'Hair founded the Atheist Press to publish What on Earth is an Atheist! (based on her "American Atheist Radio Series"), and through sheer persistence went on to publish over 25 works with major publishers. She stressed the irrational nature of religion and its negative effect on believers as well as the negative position of women in Christianity, and, among many other battles, she fought without success against tax exemption for religious organizations, prayer before NASA flights, and "In God We Trust" on U.S. currency. O'Hair made her views known without compromise and without a shred of tact ("the Old Testament is about a vicious, ugly, hate-ridden God, and the New Testament is about an incompetent one"), and even those who shared her views frequently ended up alienated from O'Hair herself. Some left American Atheists to found separate atheist associations, a few of which O'Hair also sued, and in later years some of these ex-associates accused her of the same egotistical excesses that had ruined a number of American evangelists. Working closely with O'Hair were her granddaughter Robin Murray-O'Hair , whom she had adopted and whom friends described as "inseparable" from her, and her second son, Jon Garth Murray. (She and her eldest son William Murray, with whom she had brought the Supreme Court suit, became bitterly estranged after he publicly announced his discovery of God and became a fundamentalist preacher.) The three lived and worked together, though not without loud disagreements, and enjoyed a fairly luxurious lifestyle as a result of income from their positions within atheist organizations. While both her celebrity and her success in lawsuits dimmed markedly over the years, O'Hair remained publicity-hungry and litigation-prone in the cause of atheism. She reportedly was planning to travel to New York City to picket a visit from Pope John Paul II when she disappeared, along with her son and granddaughter, in September 1995.

The circumstances surrounding their disappearance remained murky for years; local police were apparently reluctant to investigate, and for over a year no missing persons report was filed by anyone in American Atheists or by William Murray. At the time, the IRS was investigating American Atheists for probable tax problems, and just prior to their disappearance Jon Murray had illicitly used organization funds to purchase half a million dollars in gold coins; thus, among the theories floated was that they used the stolen funds to make a quick getaway to a new life. Others suggested that O'Hair, whose health was somewhat shaky, had gone away to die secretly in order to prevent Christians from praying for her. In 1999, a three-time felon was tried on charges of kidnapping, extortion and robbery of the O'Hairs, with prosecutors theorizing that he and two cronies, one a former office manager for American Atheists serving a prison term at the time of the trial, the other himself murdered by the time of the trial, had kidnapped the O'Hairs, killed them for the gold coins, and buried them somewhere in Texas. He was found guilty only of extortion, but this theory was finally proved correct. In March 2001, bones dug up on a west Texas ranch were identified as the remains of O'Hair and her relatives. Somewhat lost in the speculation that followed her disappearance was recognition of O'Hair's contribution to the ongoing, often rancorous, discourse among Americans that is vital to the country's democratic principles. Before she barged her way onto the national scene and refused to go away, merely to question the presence of Christian rhetoric or beliefs in secular life was, often, to invite suspicion and distrust. While she championed atheism, she also helped to usher in the atmosphere most Americans now take for granted, in which schoolchildren are not expected to mouth prayers of a religion that may not be their own, and Judaism and, increasingly, Islam are also accorded the basic respect of publicly acknowledged holidays long granted only to Christianity.