Becoming the Most Hated Woman in America: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

The Atheist and the Christian: Madalyn Murray O’Hair, Jean Paton, and the Stigma of Illegitimacy in the 1950s

“…Her biographers have suggested several reasons for Murray's eventual application, in 1960, for Russian citizenship in preparation to emigrate, ranging from unhappiness with family to dissatisfaction with work or long-term affiliation with Communists and radical political groups. 51 But Murray's letter to Paton adds another dimension. Rather than its being an escape from family complexities and employment difficulties or a special fondness for Marxism, the initial attraction of the Soviet Union for Murray was that she would be "acceptable there as an unmarried mother."…”