Joylette Goble, now known as Joylette Hylick, is one of the three daughters of Katherine Johnson, the NASA mathematician whose hand-checked calculations helped send John Glenn into orbit. Joylette built her own career at NASA and Lockheed Martin, co-wrote two books about her mother in 2021, and has spent years speaking about the family’s story. Her personal life is private, so this guide sticks to what books, news reports and official records confirm and says clearly where the record ends.
Joylette Goble at a Glance
| Detail | What the record says |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Joylette Hylick (Goble is her maiden name) |
| Mother | Katherine Johnson, NASA mathematician (1918–2020) |
| Father | James Goble, who died in December 1956 |
| Sisters | Katherine Moore and Constance, who died before their mother |
| Career | Roles at NASA and Lockheed Martin before retiring |
| Books | My Remarkable Journey and One Step Further (both 2021, co-written) |
| Public role | Speaker and keeper of her mother’s story |
| Date of birth | Not publicly confirmed |
Who Is Joylette Goble?
Joylette Goble is the daughter of Katherine Johnson and James Goble. She is usually named in books and news coverage as Joylette Hylick, her married name, which is why searches for “Joylette Goble” and “Joylette Hylick” lead to the same person. Her first name has deep family roots: Katherine Johnson’s own mother was Joylette Roberta Lowe Coleman, according to the MacTutor biography.
Katherine Coleman married James Goble in 1939, and the couple had three daughters: Joylette, Katherine and Constance. The family moved to Newport News, Virginia, so Katherine could take a job at NASA’s predecessor, NACA, in 1953. James Goble died of cancer in December 1956, according to NASA’s biography of Johnson, and Katherine married James A. Johnson in 1959.
When Katherine Johnson died on February 24, 2020, state legislative resolutions marking her death, such as one from the New York State Assembly, listed her survivors as two daughters, Joylette Hylick and Katherine Moore, plus six grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren. Her third daughter, Constance, had died earlier. Sources disagree about the order the sisters were born in, so we do not call Joylette the eldest or the middle child.
Growing Up as Katherine Johnson’s Daughter
The public record about Joylette’s childhood is thin, and most of what we do know comes from talks she has given as an adult. In a 2021 virtual event with the Burlington County Library System in New Jersey, covered by The Sun Newspapers, she said her mother never pushed the family toward math, even though the lessons she learned at home shaped her whole career.
She summed up her mother’s approach to life in a few simple rules: always do your best, accept the help you are given, help others when you can, and remember that you are no better and no worse than anyone else. Those habits fit the picture NASA’s own biography paints of Katherine Johnson, a woman who raised three daughters, went back to teaching when they were older, and then walked into one of the most demanding jobs in the space program.
It also helps to remember the timeline. Katherine started at NACA’s Langley laboratory in June 1953, so Joylette and her sisters grew up while their mother’s work was moving from airplanes to spaceflight. Johnson did trajectory analysis for Alan Shepard’s 1961 flight and, in 1962, re-checked the orbital equations by hand at John Glenn’s request before his Friendship 7 mission (NASA).
Her Own Career at NASA and Lockheed Martin
Joylette did not simply watch her mother’s career from the sidelines. According to the same Sun Newspapers report, she followed Katherine into the field with roles at NASA and at Lockheed Martin before retiring. The article describes her as becoming “the girl” in her own right, a nod to the line John Glenn used when he asked for Johnson to check the numbers.
We could not find an official NASA or Lockheed Martin page listing her job titles, years of service or projects. Websites that give exact details, such as “over 30 years at NASA” or work on the Space Shuttle, do not name a source, so we have not repeated them. If you are researching her career, the safest summary is the one the reporting supports: she worked in technical roles at both organizations and has since retired.
The Two Books She Co-Wrote in 2021
Joylette is a credited author on two books about her mother, both published in 2021:
- My Remarkable Journey: A Memoir, published by Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins. Library catalog records, such as the Nashville Public Library entry, credit Katherine Johnson with Joylette Hylick and Katherine Moore, with Lisa Frazier Page also credited. It follows Katherine from a gifted child in West Virginia to a NASA “human computer” and also records how Black teachers and colleges shaped her path.
- One Step Further: My Story of Math, the Moon, and a Lifelong Mission, published by National Geographic Kids and written for younger readers. A podcast episode page describes it as a collaboration between Katherine Johnson, Katherine Moore and Joylette.
Both books were put together with the family’s help after Johnson had become a household name through the film Hidden Figures, which makes them the closest thing to an official family account of her life.
Carrying Her Mother’s Legacy
Katherine Johnson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 and later a Congressional Gold Medal. When Congress honored the women known as the Hidden Figures, Joylette and her sister Katherine Moore accepted the medal on their mother’s behalf, as Senator Shelley Moore Capito’s office reported.
She also speaks directly to students and the public. The Lenape Regional High School District in New Jersey welcomed her to share how her mother handled adversity, and she has joined library programs such as the 2021 Burlington County event mentioned above. Her message, as reported, is practical rather than grand: do your best, accept help and give it back.
If you enjoy profiles of people who are known mainly through a famous relative, you may also like our pieces on Amy Sherrill and Adda Quinn, which take the same fact-first approach.
What Is Not Known, and Why Online Bios Disagree
Several things about Joylette are simply not public: her date of birth, her exact job titles and years of service, and the details of her family life. We found no major independent profile of her, so there is no authoritative biography to check against.
That gap is occupied by low-quality pages that often contradict each other. Depending on the site, she is a psychiatrist and lawyer, a registered nurse, an engineer or a computer scientist with a 30-year NASA career, and she is given birth years that differ by decades. Because none of them name a source, we have treated them as unreliable. A good rule when researching a private person: if a claim cannot be traced to a book, an official record or a named news report, leave it out.
You can find more profiles written to this standard in the Celebrities section of The Athens Magazine, or start from our homepage.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Joylette Goble?
She is one of NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson’s three daughters. She also worked at NASA and Lockheed Martin and co-authored two books about her mother.
Is Joylette Goble the same individual as Joylette Hylick?
Yes. Goble is her maiden name and Hylick is the name she uses in books and news coverage.
How many daughters did Katherine Johnson have?
Three: Joylette, Katherine and Constance. Constance died before her mother, and Joylette and Katherine Moore survived her.
What books did Joylette Goble write?
She is a credited co-author of My Remarkable Journey (Amistad/HarperCollins, 2021) and One Step Further (National Geographic Kids, 2021).
What did Katherine Johnson do at NASA?
She worked at NACA and then NASA for 33 years, from 1953 to 1986. Her trajectory analysis supported Alan Shepard’s 1961 flight, and she verified the orbital equations for John Glenn’s 1962 mission (NASA).
How old is Joylette Goble?
Her birth date has not been made public in the sources we reviewed, so we do not give an age. Pages that state one are guessing.
Is Joylette Goble still involved in her mother’s legacy?
Yes, based on recent reporting. She accepted the Congressional Gold Medal on her mother’s behalf with her sister and has given talks about her mother’s life.
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