The Witnesses Will Not Be Silenced— KATE PARRISH-BORDEN

KATE PARRISH-BORDEN, Wife of Al Borden

In 1968, drawn by the countercultural currents of the 1960s, Katherine “Kate” Parrish-Borden (b. 1950) moved from her home in Virginia to the west coast of Florida, where she lived among the so-called “Cocoa Creatures,” an itinerant commune located at various times in Daytona, Melbourne, and Cocoa Beach. It was in Cocoa Beach that Parrish met Al Borden, then training for his as-yet unassigned Apollo mission. Parrish and Borden wed in 1973, just prior to the launch of Apollo 18, Borden’s only mission for NASA.

Today Parrish-Borden is known primarily as the widow of astronaut Borden and as one of five members of the Cocoa Creatures blamed for provoking incidents of violence at the Altamont Speedway Free Festival in California in 1969.