Many readers would agree that Venetia Burney is an excellent subject for a TFK Mystery Person. But for third graders at Saint Mary's Episcopal School in Memphis, Tennessee, she is a treasured pen pal. Burney, in case you don't remember, was 11 years old when she came up with the name Pluto for the newly discovered planet, in 1930.
Last October, Anna Taylor, 9, discovered Burney's story in a book about Pluto. She told her classmates and science teacher, Elizabeth Wafler, about Burney. "The students were interested in what Burney did with her life and whether she married and pursued a career in science," says Wafler. After searching textbooks and the Internet, she contacted the Society for the History of Astronomy in America. They told her that Burney had married a mathematician named Maxwell Phair and lives in England. The Society gave Wafler the address for an E.M. Phair.
Last January, Wafler's students sent Phair a letter. "We hoped that if it were Burney's address, she would allow us to write to her," says Wafler. One month later, the class received a four-page handwritten letter from Burney, now known as Venetia Phair.
All 60 of the third graders at Saint Mary's sent cards and letters to Phair. She responded with a five-page letter that answered all of their questions. Phair is 85 years old. She lives in Epsom, England, with her husband and has a 55-year-old son. She chose to become a teacher instead of a scientist. Venetia Burney was the Mystery Person in the April 2 issue of TFK. But Wafler's students knew the answer right away, having solved the mystery months ago!