Family and Friends Reflect on the Lives Ended in Tragedy

Husband and wife missionaries. An ice cream salesman celebrating his 50th birthday. The Seattle Times wine columnist. Parents and their school-age children. A well-known Native Alaskan leader.

They and dozens of others form a rich, lingering tapestry of lives, crafted aboard a doomed flight off the Ventura coast Monday night.

Their deaths have left a trail of grieving families from Mexico to Alaska, many in seclusion. Friends reflected on those lost to the watery grave, while rallying protectively around those left behind.

“It makes you realize how one life gone can affect so many people,” Steve Edmonds said Tuesday of friend Robert Hovey, a Berkeley resident.

Others took solace in the fact that their loved ones were together during their last moments.

“They always said if they went, they wanted to go together in a blaze of glory,” said the missionaries’ son, Jeff Knight, 29.

Among the hardest hit in Seattle was the small John Hay Elementary School in the city’s quaint Queen Anne neighborhood, where classmates of four students aboard Alaska Airlines Flight 261 could barely comprehend what had happened: two entire families, killed.

Seven Alaska and Horizon Air employees, as well as 25 of their relatives and friends, were also on board the MD-83.

On Tuesday, Alaska Airlines ground crew members clutched each other and cried. Flight attendants donned light blue ribbons on their uniforms, a color chosen to represent the sea.

“It would make dad happy to see how many people saw him as a father, brother and a friend,” said the pilot’s 24-year-old son, Fred Thompson, his voice cracking.

Ted Thompson, 53, was a favored neighbor in the quiet residential Redlands neighborhood where he and his wife Marilyn lived for the past quarter of a century. “My wife had suffered a stroke and if she fell and I needed help getting her up, I’d yell, ‘Ted!’ and he’d come over immediately and help me,” said Salvador Saucedo, a retired minister who lives across the street.

The Air Force veteran had flown for Alaska Airlines for 17 1/2 years, and had logged more than 10,000 hours on jets like the MD-83, many of them between Los Angeles, Seattle and Alaska. Like First Officer William Tansky, 57, of Alameda, Thompson was assigned to Los Angeles for the airline.

Thompson told friends three weeks ago how excited he was that he temporarily had been given the Puerto-Vallarta-to-Seattle run.

Fellow youth soccer referee Sig Dellhime recalled another, more somber discussion. “I don’t know if it was a foreshadowing or what, but we talked about Egypt Air, and the perils of forced-water landing,” Dellhime said. “He was a very realistic person, and he said that a forced-water landing wasn’t a survivable crash approach.”

In the afternoon, Thompson’s son, flanked by a cousin, uncle and family friend, traveled to a nearby police station to meet with reporters.

“We’d like to thank everyone for their heartfelt condolences,” Fred Thompson said, his hands trembling as he read from a written statement. A last line went unread: “He taught me never to speak in infinitives, but I know I will always love him.”

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In San Francisco, shocked KSFO radio fans began phoning in Tuesday morning about the loss of talk radio host Cynthia Oti. She was returning from a weekend vacation on a flight later than originally planned.

“People bond with radio personalities, especially someone like Cynthia,” said KSFO program director Jack Swanson. “She wasn’t a political hot talker. She was warm and fun and liked by everybody.”

Oti, a financial consultant for First Union Securities in San Francisco, was a connoisseur and collector of fine champagne who loved watching NBA basketball.

But her greatest desire, Swanson said, was educating children about the importance of personal finance through radio and by talking to them at schools. “She believed that private and public school systems had really let kids down by not teaching them about what money is and how to be smart about it,” Swanson said. “If she left a legacy that hopefully someone will pick up, it will be pushing forward with that agenda.”

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A layover at Puerto Vallarta was one of Allison Shanks’ favorite things about being a flight attendant. The 12-year Alaska Airlines veteran, fitness buff, single mother and inveterate “sun worshiper” would head straight to the beach.

“She liked interacting with people, the whole camaraderie,” her brother Andrew Shanks said. “The gals who fly out of Seattle were a tightknit community.”

Shanks lived near Long Beach for about two years. After a brief marriage, she went back to her family in Seattle with her newborn daughter, Hailey.

After every flight, her brother said, his sister would rush to the nearest pay phone or use her cell phone to call her daughter.

No call came Monday afternoon.

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William Knudson and Brad Long of Sacramento were life partners who ran a bed and breakfast in Puerto Vallarta, to which they shuttled back and forth frequently, co-workers said.

Knudson, 53, co-owned a computer and copying machine firm and Long, 39, was a real estate agent. Both were described as outgoing, generous and civic-minded. They loved to entertain at their riverfront home.

“He was a doer, an innovator,” said Ron Zumbrun, a former colleague of Knudson.

Friends were anticipating a memorial party. “It will be the biggest party Sacramento has ever seen . . . they would have wanted it that way,” said Nancy Wilson, a longtime friend.

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Ellen Masland Salyer, 51, was a trailblazer in Sonoma County, one of the first women to chair the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce who founded a center for abused women in Ukraine.

She was a mainstay in the charitable community, working on behalf of people with AIDS, Boy Scouts, troubled youths and women, said her son, Nick Anderson.

Salyer had gone to Puerto Vallarta to ready a recently purchased condominium for Anderson and his family. She originally had planned to return Sunday but decided to stay an extra day.

“She was really excited about the condo,” said Anderson, who is a staff writer in the Los Angeles Times Washington bureau, as is his wife, Esther Schrader. “We were going to leave on Saturday for a week.”

About six years ago, while on a visit to Santa Rosa’s sister city in Ukraine, Salyer founded a center to provide services for abused women. The project won a $50,000 State Department grant and was named after Salyer.

“We’re in nameless grief, but I know she was an inspiration to us all,” her son said.

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For Robert Hovey of Berkeley, five days in Puerto Vallarta proved a “flawless vacation,” a belated birthday gift for the avid sailor who had recently turned 50, said Steve Edmonds, who had accompanied him.

“We went diving and drank margaritas,” said Edmonds, his friend of 25 years. “We had a blast.”

On Monday, Edmonds unsuccessfully tried to switch airlines so he could fly back with Hovey.

“I remember when we were leaving, Bob saying what a flawless vacation it had been,” Edmonds said. “Two hours later his plane goes down and he’s dead.”

Hovey ran San Francisco operations for Edmonds’ Redondo Beach-based company, Gelati Celesti, an ice cream manufacturer that supplies hotels and restaurants.

“I’ve had grown men who own some of the best restaurants in San Francisco breaking down and crying, ‘No, no, no,’ as I tell them what happened to Bob,” Edmonds said.

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Tom Stockley of the Seattle Times, the longest continuing wine columnist in the United States, boarded the flight with his wife, Margaret, a former journalist.

“He was writing to wine consumers, or people he would like to become wine consumers, making his language simple and direct, rather than making it exclusive and highfalutin,” said Simon Siegl, president of the American Vintners Assn. “He was very much an advocate of bringing everyone into the tent.”

In addition, five Alaskans perished, including Morris Thompson, one of the state’s best-known native leaders; his wife Thelma and their daughter Cheryl. Thompson, 61, retired last month as president of Doyon Ltd., one of the state’s most powerful native corporations and the largest private landowner in the United States.

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Linda and Joe Knight, co-pastors at Rock Church Northwest in Monroe, Wash., were high school sweethearts who had just celebrated their 32nd anniversary.

They had traveled to and from Mexico doing missionary work. Pastor Ron Warren, who worked with the couple, said Linda was “a fire preacher,” while Joe, 53, “was a more fatherly pastor.”

“I don’t doubt that from 17,000 feet to the surface of the Pacific Ocean, she didn’t get every last person on that plane saved,” Warren said.

When the Knights’ last mission began in October 1998, they were visiting Pardon Y Amistad Church in Puerto Vallarta. Linda Knight, Warren said, “asked me to take her to the worst place, where nobody wants to minister.”

The pastor took her to a garbage dump, where more than 75 children lived off the trash. So Knight, her husband Joe and the church built a shower to keep the children as clean as possible.

“This was her heart’s cry, and Joe’s too,” Warren said. “They said, ‘We’ve got to do this.’ ”

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Sarah Pearson, an off-duty flight attendant from Seattle, wanted to get away with husband, Rodney, who had been putting in long hours at his bistro. Their two young daughters came along as did friends David and Carolyn Clemetson and their four children.

The Pearsons’ neighbor, Steve Fawthrop, said one of the hardest parts was telling his own children, longtime playmates of Rachel Pearson, what had happened.

“My daughter was extremely upset and worried about Rachel being afraid. ‘Was she afraid? Was she hurt?’ And my son was more subdued and analytical. He wanted to know what was wrong with the plane, did they try to get it back to LAX? He keeps saying, ‘You don’t know for sure they’re dead.’ ”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Passengers and Crew of Flight 261

Following is a list of the crew and passengers on Alaska Airlines Flight 261. Also included are the hometowns of many of the passengers. At the request of one family, two passenger names are not being released at this time. Of the 83 passengers on Flight 261, 32 were bound for San Francisco, 47 for Seattle, three for Eugene, Ore., and one for Fairbanks, Alaska.

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CREW

1. Mills, Kristin of Seattle

2. Pulanco, Craig of Seattle

3. Shanks, Allison of Seattle

4. Tansky, William of Alameda

5. Thompson, Capt. Ted of Redlands

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PASSENGERS

1. Baldridge, Lawrence of Seattle

2. Bermudez, Renato of Granada Hills

3. Bernard, Michael

4. Branson, Malcolm of Seward, Alaska

5. Bryant, William

6. Busche, Ryan

7. Busche, Abigail

8. Chavez, Gabriella of San Diego

9. Choate, Jacqueyn of Santa Cruz

10. Choate, Toni of Santa Cruz

11. Christiansen, Sheri of San Francisco

12-13. Clemetson, Carol and infant son Spencer

14. Clemetson, David of Seattle

15. Clemetson, Blake of Seattle

16. Clemetson, Miles of Concord, Calif.

17. Clemetson, Coriander of Seattle

18. Cuthbertson, John

19. Deo, Avine of Seattle

20. Donaldson, Monte

21. Forshee, Dean of Concord, Calif.

22. Fosmire, Jerri

23. Friedman, Allen of Round Lake Beach, Ill.

24. Gandesbery, Jean

25. Gandesbery, Robert

26. Hall, Meghann of Enumclaw, Wash.

27. Han, Aloysius of Oakland

28. Hatleberg, Barbara

29. Hatleberg, Glenn

30. Hovey, Robert

31. Ing, Russell

32. Janosik, Rachel of Enumclaw, Wash.

33. Karlsson, Karl of San Bruno, Calif.

34. Karlsson, Carol of Petaluma

35. Knight, Joseph

36. Knight, Linda

37. Knudson, William of Sacramento

38. Laigo, Rodrigo

39. Laigo, Naomi

40. Long, Bradley of Sacramento

41. Luque, James of San Francisco

42. Marquez, Juan of San Francisco

43-44. Ost, Ileana and infant daughter Emily

of San Bruno, Calif.

45. Ost, Bob of San Bruno, Calif.

46. Oti, Cynthia of Oakland

47-48. Pearson, Sarah and infant daughter

Grace of Seattle

49. Pearson, Rodney of Seattle

50. Pearson, Rachel of Seattle

51. Penna, Deborah

52. Permison, Jean

53. Poll, Stanford of Mercer Island, Wash.

54. Prasad, Anjesh of Seattle

55. Prasad, Avinish of Seattle

56. Pulanco “Clarke,” Paul of Seattle

57. Russell, Charles of Hayward, Calif.

58. Ryan, Barbara

59. Ryan, Bradford

60. Ryan, James of Redmond, Wash.

61. Ryan, Terry

62. Salyer, Ellen of Sebastopol, Calif.

63. Schuyler, Stacy of Milton, Wash.

64. Shaw, Donald of Shelton, Wash.

65. Sipe, Charlene

66. Smith, Joan of Belmont, Calif.

67. Sparks, Ryan of Enumclaw, Wash.

68. Stasinos, Perry of Seattle

69. Stockley, Thomas of Seattle

70. Stockley, Margaret of Seattle

71. Stokes, Janice of Ketchikan, Alaska

72. Thompson, Morrie of Fairbanks, Alaska

73. Thompson, Thelma of Fairbanks, Alaska

74. Thompson, Sheryl

75. Thorgrimson, Robert of Poulsbo, Wash.

76. Thorgrimson, Lorna of Poulsbo, Wash.

77. Voronoff, Nina

78. Whorley, Colleen

79. Wilkie, Steve of San Francisco

80. Williams, Bob

81. Williams, Patty

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Source: Alaska Airlines