Madalyn Murray O'Hair

Madalyn Murray O'Hair
Madalyn Murray O'Hair, 1983.
Born	Madalyn Mays (1919-04-13)April 13, 1919 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	September 29, 1995(1995-09-29) (aged 76) San Antonio, Texas, U.S.
Cause of death	Murder
Nationality	American
Education	South Texas College of Law
Alma mater	Ashland University
Occupation	Founder and president of American Atheists
Known for	Abington School District v. Schempp (Supreme Court case)
Spouse(s)	John Henry Roths (m. 1941; div. 1946) Richard O'Hair (m. 1965; d. 1978)
Partner(s)	William J. Murray, Jr. Michael Fiorillo
Children	William J. Murray III Jon Garth Murray

Madalyn Murray O'Hair (née Mays; April 13, 1919 – September 29, 1995), who also used multiple pseudonyms (her most preferred being M. Bible), was an American atheist activist, founder of American Atheists, and the organization's president from 1963 to 1986. She created the first issues of American Atheist Magazine. One of her sons, Jon Garth Murray, became the nominal president of the organization from 1986 to 1995, but she remained de facto president during these nine years.

O'Hair is best known for the Murray v. Curlett lawsuit, which led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling ending official Bible-reading in American public schools in 1963. This came just one year after the Supreme Court prohibited officially sponsored prayer in schools in Engel v. Vitale. After she founded the American Atheists and won Murray v. Curlett, she achieved attention to the extent that in 1964 Life magazine referred to her as "the most hated woman in America".

In 1995, O'Hair, her son Jon, and her granddaughter Robin disappeared from Austin, Texas, and were kidnapped, murdered, and mutilated by David Roland Waters, a convicted felon out on parole, and fellow career criminals Gary Karr and Danny Fry. Waters was an employee of the American Atheists from February 1993 to April 1994, first as a typesetter and later as office manager.

Madalyn Mays was born in the Beechview neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on April 13, 1919, to Lena Christina (Scholle) and John Irwin Mays. She had an older brother, John Irwin "Irv" Jr. As an infant, she was baptized into the church as a Presbyterian. In 1936, she graduated from Rossford High School in Rossford, Ohio.

In 1941, she married John Henry Roths. They separated when they both enlisted for World War II service, he in the United States Marine Corps, she in the Women's Army Corps. In April 1945, while posted to a cryptography position in Italy, she began a relationship with an officer, William J. Murray, Jr., a married Roman Catholic who refused to divorce his wife. Mays divorced Roths, adopted the name Madalyn Murray, and gave birth to a boy whom she named William J. Murray III (nicknamed "Bill").