Emma M. Melville; 1st Civilian to See A-Test

Emma M. Melville, 87, the nation’s first civilian to witness an atomic test. In 1953, Civil Defense officials selected the 51-year-old homemaker and grandmother to witness an atomic bomb test in the Nevada desert. Mrs. Melville’s trip was featured on Edward R. Murrow’s “See It Now” television news magazine. The national program broadcast a special CBS report titled “Mrs. Melville’s Atomic Bomb.” Of the experience, she said: “Movies and other pictures . . . aren’t enough. . . . It’s something a person cannot realize or imagine without first-hand experience. It was beautiful, too, if so dreadful a thing can be linked with beauty.” In Baltimore on Tuesday.