Remembering Arkansas’ 9/11 victims

With the 20th anniversary of 9/11 coming up, this column looks at the lives of the Arkansans who died that day and the Arkansas 9/11 Memorial in El Dorado. A steel beam sits on a pedestal in El Dorado, witnessing the light of each new day as it has for the past fifteen years. A decade and a half before, it had been part of the World Trade Center in New York.

Now, in the midst of a vibrant, green lawn on the South Arkansas Community College campus, it is part of the Arkansas 9/11 Memorial. The memorial site, dedicated in 2011, pays tribute to the nearly 3,000 Americans who lost their lives on the horrible morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Four Arkansans lost their lives on that day, their names inscribed at the memorial. As the nation approaches the fifteenth anniversary of the atrocity, communities across the United States pause to remember the lives lost.

When the World Trade Center was dedicated in 1973, it was a marvel of modern architecture. The two main buildings, referred to simply as 1 World Trade Center and 2 World Trade Center, stood at 1,368 and 1,362 feet respectively, and were the tallest buildings in the world. It redefined the skyline of New York City and attracted attention from across the globe. It also became the target of threats in the years before that terrible day. The Pentagon, located just outside Washington, DC, and the heart of America’s defense command since 1943, was also targeted and struck.

One of the four Arkansans lost that day was Sara Elizabeth Low, a native of Batesville born in 1972 and known for her sense of humor. She was a stewardess on American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767, when it was crashed into the World Trade Center. After the tragedy, a scholarship was established in her memory at the University of Arkansas Community

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‘Arkansas History Minute’

By Dr. Ken Bridges DR. KEN BRIDGES (cont.)

College at Batesville.

Malissa White-Higgins was born and raised in Bald Knob. Born in 1960, she married Rocky Higgins in 1996 and became a stepmother

was a human resources administrator working in the World Trade Center that terrible morning. She was described as devoted. An active churchgoer, she once took in a family after their home had caught fire.

At 9:37, American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757, was crashed into the Pentagon. Nehamon Lyons IV was stationed there. He had been assigned to the Pentagon just eight months earlier. Lyons was born in Pine Bluff in 1971 and graduated from Dollarway High School in 1989. He moved to Mobile, Alabama, and enrolled at the University of South Alabama and enlisted in the navy in 1997. He had served on a number of ships and had an honorable service record. Lyons had risen to the rank of Operations Specialist Second Class, and his superiors noted that he had performed so well that he was in line for a promotion. He was described as friendly to all who knew him.

A fourth flight was intended to strike the heart of the nation's capital. Thomas E.

Burnett, Jr., whose time in Arkansas was short but indelible, was among the passengers on United Airlines Flight 93, also a Boeing 757.

Burnett was born in Minnesota in 1963. He was a quarterback in high school and college and eventually became an executive with a medical equipment company. His wife Deena, who he married in 1992, was from Little Rock, and the family had spent time in the state. The passengers knew their hijacked plane was part of an attack on the United States. Burnett and several other passengers quietly worked on a plan to retake control of the aircraft. As desperate as the moment was, he called his wife to reassure her.

Burnett and his fellow passengers charged into the cockpit and retook the plane just as it crashed into a quiet field in Pennsylvania.

The steel beam on display at the Arkansas 9/11 Memorial was bent by the crushing weight of the building collapsing on top of it. What had supported a landmark skyscraper was tossed aside in the frenzy of a mass murder. It had not seen the light of day since construction ended 30 years before. The memories of the nation of that terrible day are filled with the reminders of fear but also of the courage that kept more lives from being lost.

Memorials from New York to Pennsylvania to El Dorado give testimony to not only what was lost but to the unbreakable spirit of a heartbroken America.

They also remind us of a strength that comes as grief transforms itself to rebuilding, a strength that has guided America through an often difficult history. That strength is called hope.

Dr. Kenneth Bridges teaches history and geography at South Arkansas Community College. He is co- editor of the “ South Arkansas Historical Journal” and author of numerous history articles and books.