Madalyn Murray O'Hair, born Madalyn Mays, was a pioneering militant feminist activist and American atheist activist. She founded American Atheists and served as its president from 1963 to 1986. Her most notable achievement was the landmark Supreme Court ruling in the Murray v. Curlett lawsuit, which ended official Bible-reading in American public schools in 1963.
Madalyn Mays was born in the Beechview neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Lena Christina Scholle and John Irwin Mays. She had an older brother, John Irwin Jr. As an infant, she was baptized into the Presbyterian church. Mays graduated from Rossford High School in Rossford, Ohio, in 1936.
In 1941, she married John Henry Roths, but they separated during World War II, both enlisting in the military. While stationed 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 son, William "Bill" J. Murray III.
Murray completed a bachelor's degree from Ashland University in 1949 and received an LL.B. degree from the South Texas College of Law in 1952, although she failed the bar exam and never practiced law. On November 16, 1954, she gave birth to her second son, Jon Garth Murray, fathered by her boyfriend Michael Fiorillo.
Madalyn and her two sons traveled by ship to Europe, intending to defect to the Soviet Union, but the USSR denied them entry. They returned to Baltimore, Maryland, in 1960 to live with her mother and brother. In 1963, she founded American Atheists and became its president, leading the organization until 1986.
On August 27, 1995, Madalyn Murray O'Hair, her son Jon Garth, and granddaughter Robin disappeared. All three were found murdered on September 29, 1995, in San Antonio, Texas, by David Roland Waters, a convicted felon, and his fellow career criminal Gary Karr, who was an employee of American Atheists.
