Katherine “Toni” Oppenheimer Silber was an American translator and also the daughter of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. Toni Oppenheimer’s father Oppenheimer was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory during the Manhattan Project and was responsible for the research and design of an atomic bomb. He is often known as the “father of the atomic bomb.”
Katherine “Toni” Oppenheimer Silber: Bio Summary
Full Name | Katherine “Toni” Oppenheimer Silber |
other names | Toni Oppenheimer |
famous as | daughter of J. Robert Oppenheimer |
Age | 33 years old at time of death |
Date of Birth | December 7, 1944 |
Place of Birth | Los Alamos, New Mexico, United States |
Date of death | January 1977 |
Zodiac sign | Sagittarius |
Nationality | American |
Ethnicity | Caucasian |
Siblings | Peter Oppenheimer |
Parents | J. Robert Oppenheimer, Katherine Oppenheimer Vissering |
Who is Toni Oppenheimer?
Toni Oppenheimer was born on December 7, 1944, in Los Alamos, New Mexico, United States. She is the second child and the daughter of Robert Oppenheimer and his wife Katherine Oppenheimer Vissering. Toni was born in a seven-room hospital that had been dubbed “RFD,” for “rural free delivery” due to the high amount of births that occurred within the Project’s first few years. She had an elder brother Peter Oppenheimer. Toni Oppenheimer was enrolled at Miss Fine’s School in Princeton, where she was an exemplary student.
ALSO, READ; Peter Oppenheimer: Is J. Robert Oppenheimer’s son alive?
Robert Oppenheimer’s daughter Toni was diagnosed with polio at a very young age because of that, the family took her on a trip to St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands to help her recover. As she recovered from polio, she also developed an attachment to the secluded Caribbean island, beginning a lifelong relationship with the area.
Per sources, it was difficult for Toni to maintain a healthy relationship with her mother. Toni began to rebel as a teenager, after years of obeying her mother and being the hand that picks up cigarettes and drinks for Kitty around the house. Some neighbors claim the young lady and her mother were always at each other’s throats. Toni and her father Robert Oppenheimer on the other hand had a complicated relationship.
ALSO, READ; Katherine Oppenheimer: What happened to J. Robert Oppenheimer’s wife?
While some Neighbors and friends thought that the “father of the atomic bomb” Oppenheimer did not pay enough attention to his daughter, others also saw their relationship from a different angle as a very loving father and daughter relationship. Despite what others think, Robert’s death deeply unseated Toni’s mental health.
What happened to Oppenheimer’s daughter Toni?
Soon after her father’s death which took a deep toll on her, Toni Oppenheimer was also denied a position as a translator for the United Nations because the FBI refused to grant her a security clearance because of the many communist charges that had been leveled at her father fifteen years before. Toni found herself unable to completely recover from the two events- the death of her father from cancer and the denial of the translator position.
Toni permanently relocated to St. John after two unsuccessful marriages. She lived alone in her family’s old cottage, with few friends on the remote island. Oppenheimer’s daughter Katherine “Toni” Oppenheimer Silber sadly committed suicide in January 1977, a month after her 33rd birthday. Toni Oppenheimer’s father Robert died of cancer in 1967 at the age of 62.
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