Beverly Eckert
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Beverly Eckert | |
|---|---|
 Beverly Eckert shaking hands with President Barack Obama on February 6, 2009, 6 days before her death. | |
| Born | May 29, 1951 Buffalo, New York, U.S. |
| Died | February 12, 2009 (aged 57) |
Resting place | New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Alma mater | State University of New York at Buffalo |
| Known for | Member of 9/11 Family Steering Committee |
| Spouse | Sean Rooney (m. 1980–2001; his death in the September 11 attacks) |
Beverly Eckert (May 29, 1951 – February 12, 2009) was an American activist and advocate for the creation of the 9/11 Commission. She was one of the members of the 9/11 Family Steering Committee for the 9/11 Commission. Eckert's husband, Sean Rooney, died at age 50 in the attacks of September 11, 2001. She pushed for a commission to investigate 9/11 and to establish a memorial.
Eckert died at age 57 on February 12, 2009, in the crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407 in Clarence Center, New York. She had met with President Barack Obama just a few days before her death in her role as an advocate for those affected by 9/11.
Eckert was born in 1951 in Buffalo, New York to Raymond and Helen Makarowski Eckert, and met her future husband, Sean P. Rooney, at a dance at Canisius High School, a Jesuit-run academy in that city, when both were 16 years old. Eckert attended the Buffalo Academy of the Sacred Heart, an all-girls high school in Eggertsville, New York. She received a degree in fine arts in 1975 from Buffalo State College, where in 2005 she gave the Baccalaureate Commencement Address. Rooney lived in Buffalo until 1978, working as a manager of restaurants, until he began working in the financial services industry and moving to Massachusetts, New Jersey and Connecticut. When he died he was a vice president for risk management services at the Aon Corporation. He worked on the 98th floor of the World Trade Center's south tower, one of 32 employees in Aon's offices there.[1]
The couple, who had no children and lived in the Glenbrook section of Stamford, Connecticut, had been married 21 years when Rooney died. Before Rooney's death, they had celebrated their 50th birthdays with vacations to Vermont, to mark his, and Morocco, to mark hers.[1]
September 11, 2001
When the planes hit the World Trade Center, Rooney called his wife and exchanged voice mail messages with her. To get to safety, he made his way to the 105th floor of his building, trying to reach the roof, when he became trapped until the tower collapsed, killing him.[1][2]
After Eckert learned about the attacks, she went home and stayed on the phone with her husband until she heard the tower collapse. She described the incident in a StoryCorps interview.[3][4]
