Overview
- Funk died Wednesday, July 8, 2026, at age 87 in Grapevine, Texas, where the city said she passed peacefully surrounded by loved ones and cared for by Grapevine councilwoman Duff O'Dell.
- Her caregiver said recent falls and an infection in her leg had weakened her health in the days before her death.
- Funk was a member of the privately run 1961 Mercury 13 tests and frequently outperformed male counterparts in the program, including spending 10 hours and 35 minutes in a sensory‑deprivation tank compared with John Glenn’s three hours.
- After a long career as a pilot, instructor and safety investigator—becoming the first female civilian flight instructor at a U.S. military base, the FAA’s first female inspector and the NTSB’s first female air safety investigator—she finally flew on Blue Origin’s New Shepard in July 2021 at age 82 as the only Mercury 13 member to reach space.
- Funk trained thousands of pilots, logged tens of thousands of flight hours, received multiple hall‑of‑fame honors during her life and will be remembered locally and nationally for breaking gender barriers; funeral plans had not been announced at the time of reporting.