Tragedy reaches to Northeast Texas - Bryan Creed Jack, Smith County, TX ***************************************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm Submitted by Betsy Mills - betsym@1starnet.com 20 October 2001 ***************************************************************** Tragedy reaches to Northeast Texas John Henderson editor@theparisnews.com The Paris News Published September 18, 2001 Permission granted to publish in the Archives by Steve Brigman, managing Meditor, 28 Sep 2001 As the smoke clears in New York City and Washington, D.C., a few residents of Paris are counting their blessing about loved ones that were able to escape the disaster. But one Northeast Texas family mourned the loss of one of their own that wasn’t so fortunate. Bryan Creed Jack, a senior Pentagon executive in programs analysis and evaluation, was on American Airlines Flight No. 77, which was hijacked and forced to crash into the side of the Pentagon. He was 48. Jack was born and raised in Tyler, the son of James and Marie Jack. Both pairs of his grandparents, Ollie C. and Bertha Jack and Creed and Bertha Myers, lived in Paris, and their family still owns farmland north of Blossom. Ruth Ann Stallings, Bryan Jack’s aunt and wife of Gene Stallings, also lives in Paris. His parents, James and Marie Jack, still live in Tyler, where their son was a state debate champion at Robert E. Lee High School, and went on to study in Japan as a Luce Scholar. Jack would study at CalTech and earn an MBA from Stanford before going to work for the Department of Defense, which sent him to the University of Maryland for his doctorate in economics. He married a former Navy officer, Barbara Rachko and had settled in Alexandria, Va. As reported by USA Today, Jack was planning to give a lecture at a school run by the federal government in California this week, and had already purchased tickets for a trip home to Texas. Ray Sissel of Paris came close to losing his daughter in the rubble surrounding the wreck of the World Trade Center. Sandi Sissel, 52, had just stepped out of her apartment, five blocks from the Twin Towers, to walk her dog, he said. She came within two blocks of the towers and watched the first hijacked airplane collide with the first tower, picked up her dog, and ran, Ray Sissel said. Others on the street had the same idea, her father said, and a crowd knocked her into a fire hydrant, where she banged her knee. She escaped otherwise unharmed, and called her parents on her cellular telephone just to say she survived. Sandi Sissel, an award-winning documentary and feature-film cinematographer whose work includes “Chicken Ranch,” a study of a legal brothel in Nevada, “Austin Power: The Spy Who Shagged Me,” and the recent movie, “Exit Wounds,” teaches cinematography at New York University’s graduate school for the arts. She was born in Paris, but graduated from high school in Richardson, and attended Southern Methodist University. Ray Sissel returned to Paris and spent 30 years as managing editor at The Paris News. Her father said she’s living with another professor’s family until she can return to her apartment, and plans to return to work today. “All she has are the clothes she was wearing,” he said. Sondra Lee Stamper, a fashion consultant at a Madison Avenue clothing store, witnessed the crash as well. A Paris High School graduate and daughter of Juanita Stamper, she escaped unharmed, but in the aftermath, she had to walk 23 blocks home in the clothes she wore to work, including high heels. “She wore out those heels,” her mother said. “I told her to bring tennis shoes to work.” Juanita Stamper said she also heard right away from a friend of her daughter’s that she was alive, but many of her friends called her out of concern. She said she appreciated the support. Norma and Sebourn Bryan of Paris were also thankful that their son, Royce Bryan, a 1971 graduate of PHS, was unharmed. Royce was on his way back to the states after visiting Ireland, where his wife’s family is from, Norma Bryan said. Royce Bryan’s flight was scheduled to land in New York City on Tuesday, but was routed to Gander, in Newfoundland, Canada. Canadian authorities set up barrack-like sleeping arrangements for New York- bound travelers, but Norma Bryan said Gander residents reached out to them after hearing the news of the disaster, inviting them into their homes. Royce Bryan later told his parents he would be visiting Gander again. “We’re one of the blessed,” Norma Bryan said.