Today’s post is the first in a series of brief entries commemorating the individuals who were lost on Pan Am Flight 103. Family, friends, and classmates created the first memorial websites in the 1990s; unfortunately, the majority of these were lost when Yahoo shut down Geocities in 2009.
There is a vast disparity in information available on each victim, so I must apologize in advance if I omit individuals.
In addition to Karen Lee Hunt, there were three other passengers with ties to Rochester, NY: Lorraine Buser Halsch, Katherine Hollister, and Eric Cocker. As I am a native of that region, I thought it would be appropriate to start the series with short biographies of these individuals. We begin with Lorraine Buser Halsch.
Lorraine Buser Halsch was 31 years old and pregnant with her second child when she joined her father and brother on board Pan Am 103. A former special education teacher, Lorraine was flying home to Perinton, NY, where she’d be reunited with her Husband, Paul, and the couple’s 11 month old daughter, Kelly.
Lorraine, her father Warren, and brother Michael, had taken a quick tour of Europe before flying home on December 21, 1988. Still recovering from a heart attack, Geraldine Buser, Warren’s wife and Lorraine and Michael’s mother, remained behind in the family’s home in Glen Rock, New Jersey.
Including Lorraine’s unborn child, three generations of Busers perished that night. Geraldine and the surviving family members eschewed the press, preferring to mourn privately.
Paul raised Kelly in Perington, where he actively worked to forage a connection between his daughter and her mother, before moving to Maryland. Paul and Kelly endowed and continue to support a scholarship in Lorraine’s name through the Rochester Area Community Foundation.
A prolific writer and deeply spiritual young woman, Kelly Halsch maintains an extensive blog and website.
Sources
Kotlarz, Amy. “Relatives Remember Those Lost in Lockerbie Bombing.” Catholic Courier. Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester, New York, 20 Dec. 2013. Web. 07 Mar. 2015.
Saw a link for this from my website. This is very sweet. Thanks for remembering my mom. 🙂