Who is Tam O'Shaughnessy? All about Sally Ride's partner in secret relationship with astronaut

Tam O'Shaughnessy, who is an American children's science writer and Associate Professor Emeritus at San Diego University, recently opened up in an exclusive interview with People Magazine about her relationship with astronaut Sally Ride. In the interview, Tam O'Shaughnessy also discussed the new documentary, "Sally," which is set to premiere on Disney+ and chronicles the life of the pioneering Astronaut. She said:

"We had a wonderful relationship from the time we were kids until we became lovers. I think it's something to be proud of.”

According to People Magazine, the couple, who kept their relationship hidden from the public eye until Sally Ride died in 2012, initially began their bond as childhood friends.

More about Tam O'Shaughnessy, as the writer reminisces about her decades-long relationship with astronaut Sally Ride in a new documentary

Tam Elizabeth O'Shaughnessy was born on 27 January 1952 and grew up in San Andreas, California. In a 2013 interview with Windy City Times, she discussed growing up in California alongside Sally Ride, adding that they both initially trained to become tennis players. She said:

"It is true. We both grew up in Southern California, and we both started playing junior tennis at about the same time, when we were about 10 or 11. And then we both kinda got good enough to start playing the tournaments. "

She further added that she had trained under Billie Jean King as a junior player. She said:

"She was, yes. My mother ran a tennis tournament—I grew up in Fullerton, Calif., which is part of Orange County, and Sally grew up in Los Angeles County in Chino—anyway, my mom invited Billie Jean to play in her tournament, because my mom had a tennis tournament for juniors that’d also have these fun events like father/daughter, mother/son, mixed doubles, double everything. And Billie Jean had not won Wimbledon yet. She was an outstanding tennis player—she had just recently married Larry. Anyway, my mom calls her and says, “You wanna play in my little tournament? Maybe you can play with my daughter?” So Billie Jean and I, we won the women’s doubles event, and then Billie Jean said, “Hey, would you like to take lessons from me? I’d love to help you.”

Tam O'Shaughnessy, who was previously ranked fifty-second in world rankings, later retired from the sport in 1974. She went on to pursue a degree in biology at Georgia State University. According to the official website of Sally Ride Science, Tam O'Shaughnessy later pursued a PhD in school psychology at the University of California, Riverside. She began her career as a biology teacher before joining Georgia State University as an assistant professor, where she taught from 1998 until 2001. Tam O'Shaughnessy later joined San Diego State University, where she was appointed Professor Emeritus.

Tam O'Shaughnessy, in her interview with Windy City Times, also discussed her family's reaction to her relationship with Sally Ride. She said:

"Even more. I actually played a few years of professional tennis, so I was on very early Women’s Tennis Assocation, Virginia Slims Circuit. And the circuit was very close-knit and, of course, some of the women were gay, many others were not. But people kind of didn’t care, so once I realized I was attracted to women, and I was like 22 years old—I was used to a world that was very approving. And so I immediately, next time I was home, took my mother out for Mexican dinner and told her I was gay. And she kind of couldn’t talk about it—I think she was shocked."

Tam O'Shaughnessy further added:

"I don’t think she really liked it, but she never said anything bad or … we basically never talked about it again. But my sisters—I have two sisters, one younger, one older—and they were just wonderful. I told them and they were … they wanted to try to understand, and they quickly did, and it was kind of no big deal. When I told my family it was the mid-1970s, but they had already lived through the ’60s, so I think that helped."

Sally Ride and Tam O'Shaughnessy co-founded Sally Ride Science in 2001, an organization dedicated to encouraging young people, especially women, to pursue careers in STEM. In 2013, Tam O'Shaughnessy accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom on behalf of Sally Ride from President Obama.

In 2016, Tam O'Shaughnessy was appointed by President Barack Obama to the advisory board of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. In her interview with People Magazine, Tam O'Shaughnessy talked about what prompted her to publicly reveal their relationship following Ride's death from pancreatic cancer in 2012 at the age of sixty-one. She said:

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"Ten days before she died, I asked her how I should be to the public. I was holding sort of a public celebration of her life, and then a national tribute at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. And it was like, ‘So who am I?’

Tam O'Shaughnessy, who has authored over a dozen books, was previously also nominated for the prestigious Kirkus Prize for Young Readers' Literature in 2016.

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