Nodding Acquaintances Now Family : Bells Toll, Candles Flicker Across U.S.

Two days earlier, most Americans had known the Challenger Seven by nodding acquaintance. But the nation mourned them Wednesday like family.

Radio stations, schools and legislatures observed moments of silence. At 11 a.m., a bell clanged twice at the New York Stock Exchange and all trading stopped. Tickers froze. Shouting faded. For one minute, the only sound was a lone telephone ringing.

Under the gray stone spires of St. Patrick’s in New York, eight daily Masses were packed. “I didn’t know what to do, so I came to the cathedral to light a candle,” a 75-year-old man explained. He wasn’t alone. The church was ablaze with candlelight.

Probably Incinerated

In ways large and small, the nation poured out its grief for the astronauts, the civilian engineer and the schoolteacher killed Tuesday in the searing explosion that disintegrated the space shuttle Challenger. Officials said they probably were incinerated. Chances of finding their remains were slim. Searchers said they found no clothing or personal effects in the sea where pieces of the spaceship fell.

The Challenger Seven will go down in history as the first Americans killed during space flight: commander Francis R. Scobee, 46; pilot Michael J. Smith, 40; three crew members, Judith A. Resnik, 36, Ronald E. McNair, 35, and Ellison S. Onizuka, 39; teacher, Sharon Christa McAuliffe, 37; and the engineer, Gregory B. Jarvis, 41.

Wednesday’s outpouring of grief included plans in Cape Canaveral to name a school after McAuliffe, legislation in Congress to declare the day she died as an annual day of recognition for teachers and efforts at the schools she attended to establish scholarships in her name. In Washington, an attorney started a trust fund for her children and the children of her crew mates.

Memorial Fund Set Up

The U.S. Space Foundation established a memorial fund with proceeds going to construction of a new shuttle. “The seven astronauts would have wanted the program to continue, and the fund provides a way for people to recognize their heroism and achievements and to help us to realize their goals,” executive director Richard MacLeod said. The foundation itself said it would contribute $10,000.

Flags across the nation flew at half-staff. Residents turned on their porch lights for 12 hours starting at 7 p.m. Wednesday to honor the Challenger crew. The vigil originally had been intended to honor McAuliffe’s space voyage. Promoted by state school superintendents, it was to have taken place on the eve of the first lessons she broadcast from space.

“Let no one forget that Christa McAuliffe represented all that is good and important about teaching and learning,” said Franklin B. Walter, Ohio superintendent of public instruction and president of the Council of Chief State School Officers. “The supreme sacrifice that she has made . . . should be long remembered.”

Cathedral Bells Toll

Early morning bells tolled at the National Cathedral in Washington.

At 11:39 a.m. EST, the moment when Challenger exploded into flames, radio stations played the national anthem.

The National Air and Space Museum installed a panel commemorating the lost crew.

At Cape Canaveral and along the Florida coast, tears, memorial services and signs told of deep grief.

The signs were at bars, fast food restaurants and other businesses.

“In Memory of Challenger,” one read. Others proclaimed: “Our Deepest Sympathies to Shuttle Crew and the Families,” “God Bless Them All” and “Deep Sorrow Grips the Entire World.”

Dan Hansen, proprietor of The Breakfast Cove, which overlooks the site where Challenger roared off its launching pad, said his greatest sadness was for the families that stood there and watched.

“But we can’t look back,” he said. “Exploration is what the world was built on.”

Families in Seclusion

Families of most of the Challenger crew were in seclusion at their homes near Houston. NASA guards stood outside. Colleagues and friends brought comfort.

“Nothing will compensate for their loss, but we’ll be there supporting them if we can,” said Bonnie Jo Allen, the wife of former astronaut Joe Allen. “The families have given a lot to this country, and we should be thinking about these people.”

The hometowns of dead had them firmly in mind.

Ronald McNair was a kid from a yellow brick house on Graham Road in Lake City, S.C.

Even before his fateful flight, the town had renamed a section of Main Street after him. It held a parade in his honor two years ago.

But now at Lake City High School, youngsters suffered quietly. They walked in small groups, somber, remembering the man who had spoken to them about what they would become.

“This was most of those kids’ first brush with death,” said Jumana Swindler, a reporter at the Morning News in nearby Florence. “But one teacher told me that her daughter came home yesterday and said, despite everything, that she wanted to become an astronaut just like Ron McNair.”

In Love With Aircraft

In Beaufort, N.C., high school football coach Tom Hewitt remembered that Mike Smith had been so in love with aircraft that he would step out of a huddle to watch a plane take off from the Marine Air Station at Cherry Point.

“He graduated from Beaufort High and did all the other normal things,” said Walter Phillips, editor of the Carteret County News-Times. “But Mike wanted more. He always looked for the horizon. Mike Smith was the cream of the crop. He carried everybody’s hopes and aspirations with him. We’ll never forget.”

Residents of Kona, Hawaii, where Ellison Onizuka grew up, drove with their headlights turned on in honor of their favorite son.

Konawaena High School, where Onizuka was graduated in 1964, held a moment of silent meditation. Principal Ed Murai said students planned to send leis to Houston for official memorial services.

Onizuka’s mother runs a small store in town. Her son is remembered as someone who never forgot where he came from. On his first trip into space, he took along some Macademia nuts and coffee.

Monument Considered

In Mohawk, N.Y., where Gregory Jarvis was graduated from high school in 1962, members of the village board met late Wednesday at the Reformed Church to consider putting up a monument in his honor in the village park.

Mohawk High School was planning a scholarship in his memory.

“People just couldn’t believe it actually happened,” Police Chief Jim Watkins said.