Twenty years ago, 11 people with ties to Alabama lost their lives in the day that changed America forever.
Among Alabama’s victims on 9-11 were a television producer and his philanthropist wife, a financial analyst whose names lives on in a scholarship in his honor and three service members.
Here’s a look at their lives and the legacies they left behind:
David and Lynn Angell
Lynn Angell and her husband David were returning home to Los Angeles from a family wedding in Cape Cod when their hijacked plane hit the World Trade Center.
Lynn Angell was a native of Birmingham and attended Auburn University. The two married in 1971 and David Angell went on to become an Emmy-award winning writer for “Cheers,” “Wings” and “Frasier.” Before their deaths, the Angells had formed the Angell Foundation, a philanthropic organization that supported education, anti-poverty and leadership initiatives. David Angell’s sister, Claire Miller, remembers that as the couple became more successful, they often talked about the best ways to help people.
“They didn’t believe in just giving out money – they endeavored to offer a helping hand to put anyone in need on a path to success,” the Angell Foundation website noted.
David Angell was 55 at the time of his death; Lynn Angell was 52.
The Angell Foundation still exists and provides grants to an array of community service projects and organizations.
Carl Max Hammond
Hammond, 37, a native of Huntsville, died on United Airlines Flight 175 when it hit the World Trade Center on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Hammond was a 1982 graduate of Grissom High School who went on to earn a doctorate in physics and worked as a scientist for the Mitre Corp. On Sept. 11, 2001, he was flying to Los Angeles for a business meeting.
Last year, Geneva Mayor Frankie Lindsey said Hammond, who spent a lot of time in the small town as a child and teen, was at heart a country boy.
(He wasn’t) just a brainy bookworm,” Lindsey said. “Hammond was a country boy at heart who could build a Ford Mustang bumper-to-bumper before he could drive.”
Alok Kumar Mehta
Mehta, 23, was a 1996 graduate of Huntsville High School. Mehta died in the World Trade Center North Tower where he had begun working only four days earlier as an intern for the financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald. The 2000 graduate of Colorado State University was working toward a master’s degree in business from Hofstra University when he was killed. A scholarship at CSU was later established in his name.
In a memorial page in his honor, Mehta was remembered as a “truly wonderful young man full of possibility and positivity.”
Jimmie Ira Holley
Holley, 54, was a native of Alexander City. He was working as an accountant for the Army at the Pentagon on the day of his death. His obituary notes Holley had survived a tour in Vietnam with the Army, a kidney transplant and a quadruple bypass.
H was buried with his dog tags, letters from loved ones and a family photo.
Terry Lynch
A native of Youngstown, Ohio, Lynch worked as senior legislative aid to Alabama Congressman and later Senator Richard Shelby for 15 years, starting in 1982. In that capacity, he was critical in the move of the Aviation and Troop Command from St. Louis, Missouri to Huntsville during 1995 Base Realignment and Closure. He was also instrumental in the creation of an Aviation and Missile Command Center at Redstone Arsenal, bringing more than 1,800 jobs to the area.
As a member of Shelby’s staff, he initiated the investigation into the Gulf War Illness and continued relations with Middle Eastern countries. For this work, Lynch was sent, as a representative of Senator Shelby and the Senate Armed Services Committee, to meet with heads of state of such countries as Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Syria, the Czech Republic, France, England and Germany.
He was working as a consultant for Booz-Allen & Hamilton in New York but was in the Pentagon for a meeting when the airplane hit the building. He was 49 years old at the time of his death.
After his death, his wife, Jackie, and two daughters, created the Terence M. Lynch Foundation to help fight juvenile rheumatological diseases, a cause he had supported before his death.
Operations Specialist 2nd Class Nehamon Lyons IV
Lyons, 31, of Mobile, died in the attack on the Pentagon. Lyons was a Navy operations specialist in the building. He attended the University of South Alabama in Mobile for three years, pursuing a degree in medicine while working several jobs to pay for his education. Nehamon enlisted in the United States Navy in 1997. He transferred to the Pentagon in January 2001 and was an Operations Specialist 2nd Class.
In an online biography, he is described as a “self-started who self-starter who would pursue a goal and work tirelessly to achieve it. He was a man, not because he was asked to be one, but because someone had to in his situation.”
Information Systems Technician 1st Class Marsha Ratchford
Ratchford, 34, was from Prichard and left behind three young children. She died in the Pentagon, where she worked for the Navy. On the day of her death, she was moving into a new office where the plane hit.
Her husband, Rodney, remembered her as having “an awesome smile.”
The Navy named a classroom in Ratchford’s honor.
Sgt. Tamara Thurman
A native of Brewton, Thurman was working in a classified job for the Army at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. She was 25. Thurman, who enlisted in the Army out of high school, served in Bosnia, Korea and Germany and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal, the Army Achievement Medal, and the Army Good Conduct Medal.
Her mother remembered her as a “sweet girl,” adding “I am very proud of her.”
Major Dwayne Williams
Williams was a Jacksonville native who attended the University of North Alabama. Williams, who worked as Joint Officer Distribution Manager under the Director for Military Personnel Management, died in the Pentagon attack. Williams, 40, had two children. He was a recipient of the Bronze Star Medal, two Meritorious Service Medals, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Joint Service Commendation Medal and three Army Commendation Medals, among others.
His online memorial notes he “touched hundreds of lives with his enthusiasm, energy and love of God and country.”
Eddie Dillard
Dillard, a native of Hurtsboro, had spent much of his life in Indiana. He died when United Airlines Flight 175 had hit the South Tower of the World Trade Center. He is remembered in an online memorial for his “smile and dapper dress style.”
Ad Choices