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9/11 Pentagon Memorial Heroes

Sara M. Clark

Born April 4, 1936, 65 years old

Sara M. Clark, 65, and her fiancé had just decided to have their wedding reception at a yacht club in Baltimore. On the Sunday before September 11th, they went shopping for wedding bands. And Tuesday morning they kissed, embraced and said, “I love you,” to each other before she left their Columbia home for Dulles International Airport. 

Clark, a sixth-grade teacher at Backus Middle School in the District, then boarded American Airlines Flight 77 to chaperon a group of children going to Santa Barbara, California for an ecology conference sponsored by National Geographic. She had taught in DC public schools since 1965, and is survived by two children. 

“Her engagement ring is still upstairs,” her fiancé, John Milton Wesley, said yesterday. “She didn’t want to take it.” 

Clark received her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Winston-Salem State University and a Master’s in Urban Learning from The George Washington University. 

After he kissed her goodbye Tuesday, Wesley noticed that she had left her yellow jacket near the stairway. “I ran out to give it to her,” Wesley said. “But she had already gone.”

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9/11 Pentagon Memorial Heroes

Meet the Heroes

The Pentagon Memorial was created to remember and honor those family members and friends who are no longer with us because of the events of September 11th, 2001 at the Pentagon.