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Ceremony marks 25 years since Sept. 11, Hague’s passing

By Jess Mancini 3 min read

Parkersburg High School will hold its annual Sept. 11 remembrance ceremony at 2 p.m. Friday at Stadium Field, organizers said.

The ceremony, usually held around the flagpole, will be held in the stadium because this year is the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks, according to organizer Debbie Cunningham.

"We're making it more special this year," she said.

Terrorists from al-Qaeda on Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked four airliners. One was flown into the Pentagon and another crashed in a field in Southwest Pennsylvania after passengers overcame the hijackers.

The other two planes were flown into the World Trade Centers where Mary Lou Hague, a 1992 graduate from Parkersburg High, was a research analyst for Keefe, Bruyette & Woods on the 89th floor of the South Tower. Hague, 26, was killed in the collapse of the building.

Hague graduated from Parkersburg High with a 4.0 grade point average. She later graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

A member of the Red Wings drill team, Hague also is honored with a memorial at the top of the horseshoe in front of the school and with a building named in her honor, the Mary Lou Hague Sports and Art Center.

Among speakers at the Sept. 11 ceremony will be Cindy Bullock, Hague's sister, and Parkersburg Mayor Tommy Joyce, Cunningham said. The A Cappella Choir will perform and the The Parkersburg Fire Department will ring a bell on a fire truck during a moment of silence, she said.

“The students at PHS weren’t born on 9-11,” Joyce said. “My hope is that these young people understand the importance of remembering and honoring the victims, the impact the events had on our national psyche and the galvanizing effect effect post 9-11.

“I also hope those students get an idea as to what a wonderfully kind, bright and talented young lady Mary Lou was.”

The remembrance is organized by the Parkersburg Woman's Club and the Parkersburg High School Student Council, Cunningham said. American flags will be on display at the school and in the city of Vienna that include notations of "Once a Big Red, always a Big Red" and of never forgetting what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, she said.

"I truly take that to heart," said Vienna Mayor Chad Emrick, who ordered 120 American flags that will be planted on Grand Central Avenue between 29th and 60th streets.

Emrick, as a member of the West Virginia National Guard, was deployed to the Pentagon the evening of the attack and for the next six weeks participated in the support, recovery and clean up there. All aboard the plane and 125 people in the Pentagon were killed.

"Sept. 11 has a very special meaning to me," he said.

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