To Long Beach Victims, Travel Described the Essence of Life

Anthony and Barbara Fallon loved to travel. They filled big scrapbooks with mementos from trips all over the world. Friends say they collected matchbook covers, place mats, ticket stubs--always scouring for the “tackiest souvenirs,” which they displayed in a case in their Long Beach living room.

And so when Fallon, 49, an engineer with Chevron, had to go to Sydney, Australia, on a two-week business trip, his 48-year-old wife accompanied him, as she often did. En route Friday, the couple were among the nine passengers sucked out of United Airlines Flight 811 when the wall of the plane blew away at 20,000 feet about 50 miles out of Honolulu.

“They died doing what they wanted to do--traveling over the ocean,” a friend, Chris Ericksen, said Saturday.

‘Much to Come Back To’

“They had so much to come back to,” said another friend, Norma Barber, who has lived across the street from the Fallons for more than 10 years. “ . . . I’m so numb, now.”

The couple were supposed to return in time for Tony’s 50th birthday party, scheduled for March 18. Hundreds of friends had been invited to their house, two blocks from the beach, in the Belmont Shore area.

“They were probably close friends with 50 people,” Ericksen said. “I think Tony and Barbara had more close friends than anyone I know.”

Fallon sang and played guitar at Christmas parties and other gatherings “with a great deal of enthusiasm and a fair amount of skill,” Ericksen recalled. “They were great people to be around, a lot of fun.”

Tony was described as a slight, mustachioed man whose thinning hair was usually covered by a hat. Barbara, with dark hair and a “very ready smile,” was active in the local arts community. Both were born in Southern California. They had no children; she had a daughter from a previous marriage.

Friends in Shock

At the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club, where the Fallons often relaxed, friends were in “shock and dismay” over the loss, said Ericksen, who is commodore of the club. Fallon had been commodore in 1986. He also was on a committee that organized the qualifying regattas in Long Beach for the 1984 Olympics, Ericksen said.

Although it was suggested that Saturday’s regatta be canceled in remembrance, Ericksen said the idea was abandoned.

“They would have wanted this to go on,” he said. “If they were here, they would sail. I think they would want us to . . . . I could see them sitting on the patio having a beer.”

The gentle breeze billowing their sails, three dinghies moved across Alamitos Bay. It was the kind of day Saturday, friends say, the Fallons would have loved. But their 25-foot Coronado sailboat, Sea Shanty, remained moored in the harbor.