The September 11th attack
Funeral speakers eulogize victims of terror attacks

Associated Press

In the heart of Manhattan, in Washington's suburbs, in saddened towns elsewhere, mourners grieved and reminisced yesterday at the first wave of services for the terror attacks' victims — a fearless priest, a feisty TV commentator, parents and their preschool daughters.

Mourners comfort each other after services for Peter and Susan Hanson and their 3-year-old daughter, Christine, in East Lyme, Conn. Associated Press

The tributes from relatives, friends and civic leaders will be echoed over and over, at hundreds of churches across the nation, in the coming days, weeks and perhaps months.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas delivered a eulogy in Arlington, Va., for Barbara Olson, a lawyer, an unabashedly conservative TV commentator and the wife of U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson. She was aboard the jetliner that crashed into the Pentagon on Tuesday.

"Barbara strode boldly through life, full of cheer and verve, shying from no challenge or obstacle," Thomas said. "She was irrepressible in the fullest sense ... ignoring all torpedoes and charging full speed ahead."

Congressmen, federal judges and others from Washington's political elite were among about 1,500 people gathered for the memorial service at Arlington's St. Thomas More Cathedral.

In California, family and friends held memorials for two men believed to have helped thwart hijackers aboard United Flight 93, the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania before reaching a target. Both men had called relatives to tell them of the danger, and to say goodbye.

In Pleasanton, Calif., nearly 2,000 mourners remembered Thomas Burnett Jr., 38, an executive at a medical device company. In San Francisco, mourners gathered for Mark Bingham, 31, who owned a public relations firm and played on the San Francisco Fog, a gay men's rugby team.

Two services were held in Connecticut towns — both involving parents and children killed together when United Flight 175 smashed into the Trade Center.

In East Lyme, Conn., mourners grieved for Ruth McCourt, 45 and her daughter, Juliana Valentine McCourt, 4. A service was held in Easton, Conn., for Peter Hanson, 32, his wife, Susan, 35, and their 3-year-old daughter, Christine.

It was during the Hanson service that mourners sang "I Love You" in memory of Christine. Friends said the child would often ask guests at her home to sing the purple dinosaur's anthem with her.

In Batesville, Ark., a service was held for Sara Low, a flight attendant aboard American Flight 11, which also struck the World Trade Center.

An overflow crowd packed a Landover, Md., church at a service for James Debeuneure, a teacher at Ketcham Elementary in Washington. He was one of three teachers and three students heading to California on a field trip when their flight from Washington-Dulles was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon.