Deborah Welsh

Deborah Jacobs Welsh loved being a flight attendant. So much so that she hung in to the end with Eastern and Kiwi Airlines.

Then, nearly five years ago, she was hired by United Airlines and based at Newark International Airport.

Welsh flew out of Newark on September 11, a crew member of hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 that slammed into a field in western Pennsylvania.

Patrick Welsh, who lived with Deborah on Manhattan's West Side, knows his wife was terrified when the hijackers commandeered Flight 93. ``Like anybody would be,'' he said.

``I know in that horrible takeover, she stepped up. The flag was on the ground and she picked it up and so did the others on the plane,'' he said.

Authorities believe passengers may have attempted to wrest control of the aircraft from the hijackers. Had it not crashed in Pennsylvania, Flight 93 might well have been steered into a Washington landmark, like jetliners that were crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Patrick Welsh said his wife wasn't shy about expressing herself, and would say ``what the terrorists thought was a triumphant battle cry from Allah was actually a pathetic whimper of cowardice.''

``She wouldn't want a knee-jerk reaction or vigilantism, and I know she would want that expressed,'' he said.

The couple had spent the evening before the fatal flight at a New York comedy club. ``We loved to laugh,'' he said.

And laughter, it seems, will become Deborah Welsh's legacy.

``When she walked into a room, the party started,'' said Coral Mary Southam, a friend from Los Angeles.

As Welsh makes plans for his wife's memorial service Saturday in Manhattan, he said she would be most concerned about how to restore the country.

He said she'd want people ``to get back to going to movies, to buying hot dogs or a CD.''

``But in the big picture, she'd want us to make sure the planes keep going. She loved this industry.''

26MAR02
This memorial is being submitted for the memory of Debbie Welsh.  I was a friend of Debbie's while I was at United.  

A story that I remember Debbie telling me sums up the kind of person she was and will always be.  One night she was out on the streets of her Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, walking her dog.  She was waiting to cross a street when next to her appeared a man.  When she looked over, she saw that it was Alec Baldwin or some other mega Hollywood star, and she was just flabbergasted.  But she was cool, and decided just to say "hi" and leave it at that, since this mega-star probably got really tired of people going crazy over him.  But this Alec Baldwin did a weird thing, he started to talk to her, there on that street corner, making conversation as though Debbie were one of the Hollywood starlets that he was accustomed to working with.  Debbie said they ended up walking a block before Debbie had to turn back.  I remember Debbie and I in the back galley of the 757 laughing about that and at that time I remember looking at her and thinking, "of course, he wanted to talk to her, she looks like a movie star!"

Debbie will always be alive in my mind and in my heart.  If anyone out there reading this knew Debbie, and has a memory of her that they don't mind sharing, please e-mail me at rtb747@aol.com.  My name is Lara.  Thank you for letting me share this with you.