Breaking News
Local News

Adamses observe 25th anniversary of Sept. 11

By Jess Mancini 5 min read

Twenty-five years have passed since Parkersburg native Mary Lou Hague was killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack at the World Trade Centers in New York City.

Liza Adams, her mother, remembers everything about the day: speaking to her daughter as she tried to evacuate the building struck by a hijacked airliner and watching everything unfold on television. She thinks about Mary Lou every day, but it begins getting more emotional the closer to the day of the anniversary.

"I remember every single memory all summer long," she said.

Pictures and videos from the day are difficult to watch, Liza Adams said. They bring back unpleasant memories, but like Pearl Harbor, photographs and film are the best ways for people to never forget and for the generations to come to know that Sept. 11 changed America and the world, she said.

Sept. 11 has changed the perspective from which Liza Adams sees the world. It showed that evil exists and people have to be ever vigilant, she said.

"Freedom is not free," she said.

Two songs would be Mary Lou's message to the world if she was alive today, "We are the World" with words and music by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson and "What the World Needs Now Is Love" by Hal David and Burt Bacharach, Liza Adams said. "'It's the only thing that there's just too little of,' the song lyrics are," she said.

"I think that would be the memory that she would want," Liza Adams said.

Richard, Liza's husband, was a major part of Mary Lou's life. He was her mentor, idol and helped guide her throughout her career.

Raised in Parkersburg, Mary Lou graduated from Parkersburg High in 1992 and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1996 in business administration. She enjoyed pop music and pop culture.

After two years with the banking firm Morgan Keegan in Memphis, Tenn., Mary Lou became a research analyst for Keefe, Bruyette & Woods and worked on the 89th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

The Adamses have done much to preserve the memory of Mary Lou. They have participated in ceremonies of remembrance locally and in New York City, established a scholarship in Mary Lou's memory at the Parkersburg Area Community Foundation and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and made donations in her memory throughout the years.

They donated a piece of a beam from the tower for the Sept. 11 monument at the Parkersburg Municipal Building. The monument, dedicated in 2021 on the 20th anniversary, was an excellent place to display the steel from the tower and remember and honor all the victims, including Mary Lou, and the first responders to the emergency, Liza Adams said.

"One of the things that makes this so unusual is the piece of steel from the World Trade Center," Richard Adams said.

The artifact was sent by Jimmy Dunne, CEO of the investment banking firm Sandler O'Neil, which had offices in the World Trade Center where Mary Lou's firm was located. Dunne and Richard Adams are friends.

"He lost half of his employees and he knew that we had lost Mary Lou," Richard Adams said.

Dunne called Richard Adams and said he was going to send him the piece of steel, upon which a welder fashioned crosses and "WTC."

Unsure what to do with it, the piece sat in the dining room for 20 years, Richard Adams said.

"What else can you do with a piece of steel," he said.

Then one day the city of Parkersburg called and said planning was underway for a Sept. 11 monument and asked if they would like to be involved. That's how the piece became incorporated into the monument, Richard Adams said.

The expansion of the World Trade Center Memorial plaza at 1 Government Square began in July and is a project financed and undertaken by the city. Kelly Paving is building new concrete retaining walls, stairs, sidewalks, railing and lighting and a stamped concrete area representing the North Tower was added to match the stamped area representing the South Tower upon which the monument was erected.

Liza Adams has participated in Sept. 11 observances at Parkersburg High School, where Mary Lou graduated. The Adamses have donated the flowers and plaques about Mary Lou at the front of the school.

The events of Sept. 11 should be taught in the schools so it's never forgotten and its significance, like Pearl Harbor and other major events in the United States and the world, is understood by children, Adams said.

Mary Lou, 26 at the time, was working the morning of Sept. 11 when American Airlines Flight 11, a domestic airliner, was hijacked by al-Qaeda terrorists and flown into the North Tower at 8:46 a.m. At 9:03 a.m., United Airlines flight 175 was flown into the South Tower.

The South Tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m. and the North Tower at 10:28 a.m. About 3,000 people died.

At around the same time, two other planes also were hijacked.

At 9:37 a.m., American Airlines Flight 77 was flown into the Pentagon, killing everyone aboard and 125 people in the building. At 9:57 a.m., the men on United Airlines Flight 93 stormed the cockpit and overthrew the hijackers, causing the plane to crash into a field in Shanksville, Pa., and not its intended target, possibly the White House or the Capitol.

The last time Adams saw Mary Lou was at her sister's wedding. They spoke to each other every day, the last time on Sept. 11 as she attempted to evacuate the South Tower.

"It seems like it was yesterday," Liza Adams said.

Starting at /week.