Tribute to Nicole--and Others : Remembrance: About 1,000 join the Brown family in Dana Point candlelight vigil for victims of violence on anniversary of the Simpson-Goldman slayings.

An estimated 1,000 people crowded into an ocean-view park Monday night for a candlelight vigil in remembrance of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman, slain exactly one year ago, and of all others who have died by violence.

Hundreds sat on lawn chairs on a grassy slope at Salt Creek Beach Park overlooking the basketball court where the vigil took place. Others formed lines along the court to get candles, angel pins and round, white pins that said “Remember Nicole/1959 to 1994.”

“I really wanted this to turn out for Nicole, Ron and all the victims of violence,” Nicole Brown Simpson’s sister, Denise, told the crowd. “You know, it really makes you proud to be an American when people participate like this.”

She also read from a poem she had written and read at Nicole’s funeral, which read in part: “Do not stand around my grave and cry; I am not there, I did not die.”

Her father, Louis Brown, said he also was grateful for the turnout.

“A lot of you here probably have a lot of pain,” he said, referring to people who know victims of drunk-driving accidents or domestic violence. “A home, a family, should be a loving place. Children should be taught to love. . . .”

“We welcome you all, and thank you all. God bless you all.”

One of the volunteers passing out the mementos, Doreen Whitcomb, 38, of Laguna Niguel, said the vigil was held “to generate a national awareness.”

“It’s not only for Nicole,” she said. “It’s not only for Ron. It’s for all victims. We’re just speaking out against violence.”

Denise Brown said several states, at the urging of the Nicole Brown Simpson Charitable Foundation, have proclaimed June 12 “Stop the Violence Day.”

Julie Doyle, 42, of Anaheim Hills sat on the slope wearing a shirt embroidered with the words “Stop the Violence” and an angel pin that was given to her two weeks ago by Nicole Brown Simpson’s father.

Doyle said the two met when she went to Dana Point to make a donation to the foundation.

“I just told him that I felt sorry for his family and that we are praying for them,” she said. Half a dozen sheriff’s deputies were assigned to patrol the park, part of which resembles a natural amphitheater and overlooks the ocean. The center of the park is flanked by bluffs on which sit the Ritz-Carlton hotel and large homes in a gated community.

Dozens of TV cameras lined the court and several satellite dishes beamed pictures of the vigil.

Among those attending were Nicole Brown Simpson’s two other sisters, Dominique and Tanya; her mother, Juditha; and O.J. Simpson’s son and daughter from an earlier marriage, Jason and Arnelle.

The vigil was roughly a mile from the Brown family home and not far from the high school that Nicole Brown Simpson attended and was named to the homecoming court in 1976.

The one-year anniversary of the slayings came on the same day that representatives from several dozen media organizations covering the O.J. Simpson double-murder trial were allowed to see autopsy photographs for the first time of Brown Simpson, 35, and Goldman, 25.

Earlier Monday afternoon, the Brown family visited the Lake Forest cemetery where Nicole Brown Simpson is buried.