Michelle Heidenberger, 57, of Chevy Chase, Md., was a flight attendant for American Airlines for 25 years. "Michele was a pro," reads a statement issued by family and friends. "She died trying to protect her passengers and crew." She is survived by her husband, Tom, a pilot for U.S. Airways, their 11-year-old son and college-age daughter.

A 30-year flight attendant with American Airlines whose father was general manager of American's operations at Bradley International Airport is among the roll of those murdered in Tuesday's kamikaze attack on the Pentagon.

Michele Heidenberger, who grew up in Windsor, "was a wonderful, caring, giving person who, I believe, even in this disaster, was probably taking care of someone else," her sister Diane Johnson said Wednesday from the Suffield house of their mother, Mary McDonald.

Heidenberger, 52, of Chevy Chase, Md., was one of 64 people aboard American Flight 77 bound from Dulles Airport for Los Angeles.

Terrorists hijacked the Boeing 757 during the first quarter of its journey westward, turned it around toward the capital, and plowed it into the western side of the nation's military headquarters.

She leaves behind her husband, Thomas, a captain with USAirways, and two children, Alison, who turned 20 on Monday, and a son, Thomas, 14.

Johnson, who with her other sisters, Karen Denino and Suzanne Bennett of Windsor, were at their mother's house, said she last saw Heidenberger in July at Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire.

Heidenberger was born in Melrose, Mass. Her family moved to Windsor in 1960, Johnson said.

Her father, the late Richard McDonald, was general manager of American's operations at Bradley in Windsor Locks for 36 years.

Heidenberger graduated from Windsor High School in 1967. She had lived in Maryland since 1975.

Neighbors and relatives in metropolitan Washington, D.C., remembered Heidenberger for many reasons: as a good friend, a gardener, owner of a new golden retriever puppy, and as someone who delivered groceries to older people.

"She took care of everyone else besides herself," Johnson said. "She did lots of volunteer work."

"For every one of us, at some point of our lives when we needed help, she was always the one there for us," her sister-in-law, Betsy Heidenberger, told The Washington Times.

"I'm just so heartbroken," said Ruby Ramer, one of Heidenberger's neighbors, to The Washington Post. "I just can't believe she won't be one of our neighbors."

"She was a lovely lady," neighbor Peter Dove told the Post when he answered the telephone Tuesday at the Heidenbergers' house. "We were such over-the-fence neighbors that we cut a gate in the fence."

The Post also reported that Heidenberger was trained to deal with a hijacking - that she knew not to let an intruder into an aircraft's cockpit, to tell the person that she lacked a key to the locked door, and that she would have to call the pilot.

Family members also said Heidenberger had been switched recently to Flight 77's Dulles-to-Los Angeles route, and that she was trying to switch back to her usual Dulles-to-Miami run.

"At first we heard it was a commuter airline" that carved a six-story hole in the Pentagon, Johnson said, "but then we heard it wasn't, and I knew she had been flying that route."

Submitted:  Monday, September 2nd, 2002

To the family of Michelle Heidenberger,

Since Christmas of 2001 I have been wearing a silver bracelet with Michelle's name and 9-11-01 on it, and have lifted your family up in prayers many times as I look at it.  Our daughter was the first training class at Southwest airlines AFTER 9-11.  She graduated and got her wings in early December and was flying right away.  Our daughter-in-laws Grandmother wanted to give us a special Christmas gift and she heard about a local jeweler in Greenville, North Carolina that was making a bracelet for each person that died on 9-11 and engraving their name on it.  She specifically requested flight attendants to honor our daughter.

My daughter got Renee May and I got Michelle.  I am not very computer savvy and have wanted to get on the Internet and find out about Michelle for all this time.  I finally did it tonight.  I looked at her picture (and Renee's) and just want to let you know that total strangers are still praying for you and your family.  I'm sure the coming weeks will be more difficult than I can begin to imagine - I hope it will be of some small comfort to know of my prayers.  I love the Lord Jesus Christ and have trusted Him as my personal Savior and daily cling to the HOPE of eternity with HIM that He has promised to those that accept Him.  I pray you have that assurance.  I pray Michelle had that assurance.

God bless you as you continue to live day by day.  I wish you peace.

L. E. Pitman