Born April 13, 1919 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Died September, 1995 Near Austin, Texas

Atheist activist

Madalyn Murray O'Hair. AP/Wide World Photos. Reproduced by permission.

Madalyn Murray O'Hair was widely known as the woman who ended prayer in American public schools in the early 1960s. She proudly accepted the label "the most hated woman in America," given to her by Life magazine in 1964. O'Hair became known across the nation in 1961, when she and her son William challenged the Baltimore Public Schools' practice of saying a morning prayer. Excited by the publicity she received, O'Hair became a spokesperson for the atheist cause at a time when religious belief was included in most American institutions. Atheism is the belief that there is no God. Over the next thirty-four years, she published atheist periodicals, hosted atheist radio shows, toured in a religious debate show, and created a...