Iron Lung Woman Dies At 71

A woman who was trying to write a book about her life has died at her home in North Carolina after spending 61 years with her iron lung. She has yet to be graduated from college. This 71-year-old woman, Martha Mason was an associate communications professor at Wake Forest University. Mason contracted polio in 1948, when she was 11. The disease, which killed her older brother, left her paralyzed from the neck down. But she refused to be defined by her physical state.

A memorial service for Martha Mason will be held at Lattimore Baptist Church, 303 Peachtree Road. Visitation will begin at 2 in the church's fellowship hall.