The sun will rise on Friday, and Junior ROTC cadets at Palo Verde High School will continue a decades-long tradition.
Hundreds of students and dozens of first responders will gather at a memorial near the school’s soccer field. JROTC cadets will raise, then lower an American flag to half-staff.
Palo Verde’s choir will sing the national anthem, a trumpeter will play “Taps” and cadets will salute.
It’s all to honor the life of Barbara Edwards, a 58-year-old German and French teacher at Palo Verde who was seated on the American Airlines flight that was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. Edwards was the only full-time Las Vegas resident who died in the terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 people 25 years ago.
Colleagues, family and friends have remembered Edwards over the years as a jovial and fun spirit who was dedicated to her students.
Palo Verde cadets continue to keep her memory alive each year through the annual ceremony that is organized by students and open to the public.
“We want to honor all of the innocent lives that were lost that day and show respect to our country,” said Cadet Capt. Thadus Roberts III, a senior at Palo Verde. “That’s what inspires us to put it on every year.”
‘Keep on remembering her’
Remnants of Edwards’ life and the day that brought it to a tragic end remain ever-present at her old high school. This includes her outdoor memorial and a bookshelf shrine in Palo Verde’s library where drawings, newspaper clippings and even a piece of the World Trade Center are on display.
All these years later, Edwards remains in the minds of a select few staff members who taught alongside her, according to 2nd Lt. Laila Frans, who is leading coordination efforts for Edwards’ ceremony.
“There’s also so many teachers that still teach here that have known about her and still remember her,” said Frans, a senior at Palo Verde. “We feel like it’s appropriate to keep on remembering her, especially after such a tragic event.”
Frans and Roberts III both said they have two previous memorial ceremonies for Edwards, describing them as heavy and deeply emotional. “I fought back tears in a few parts,” Roberts III said of one year’s ceremony.
“You just really think about all of the people who died on 9/11 and how they went to work that day thinking that they were just going to have a normal day, and then the tragedy happens,” he added. “It was very sad for me, but I was honored to be a part of it.”
Joshua Logie, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and instructor at Palo Verde, said last year’s ceremony saw high turnout and expects the 25th anniversary event to draw even more community members.
Logie said he cherishes watching his cadets plan, coordinate and execute the annual ceremony, despite 9/11 happening before their lifetimes.
“I’d like for them to take away an appreciation for the fact that so many people sacrifice in order to put us in a position to do the things that we take for granted, like come to a public high school and be able to freely express the way that we feel about our country and to put ourselves secondary to the greater good,” Logie said. “If they can take a little piece of those things and apply it to their day-to-day life, then we’re succeeding.”
Sister: Edwards ‘didn’t know a stranger’
Jane Gollan, Edwards’ younger sister, remembered the teacher as an outgoing individual.
“She didn’t know a stranger,” said Gollan, 82, of Yuma, Arizona. “She talked to everybody. She was bubbly and cheery and ready to go have fun.”
Gollan said Edwards would have been teaching on 9/11 had she not been in a car crash in Las Vegas that broke her arm and took her out of the classroom. With time off, she said, Edwards flew to New York for a wedding and was flying back to the West Coast when her flight was hijacked.
All that authorities found of Edwards was one of her hands adorned with a ring gifted to her by her grandmother, Gollan said.
Before her fated New York trip, Gollan said, Edwards traveled to Michigan to visit one of her three sons. Several other family members made the trip to the Great Lakes State as well, she said.
“Unbeknownst to us, that was our goodbye to her. We never saw her again,” Gollan said. “It was meant to be that way.”
As cadets salute and a choir sings to remember her sister, Gollan will keep her own personal memento close to her heart: a pin with Edwards’ face printed on it, attached to her shirt.
“I’ll put that on on 9/11, just in remembrance,” Gollan said.
Contact Spencer Levering at slevering@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0253.
