Beverly Eckert’s Final Call With Sean Rooney

On September 11, 2001, Beverly Eckert spent the last half hour of her husband Sean Rooney’s life talking with him on the phone. Rooney was trapped on the 105th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

When it became clear that he could not get out, the couple stopped talking about escape and remembered their life together. Sean told Beverly that, after his death, he wanted her to “live life to the fullest.”

Beverly later became an advocate for families of attack victims. On February 6, 2009, she met President Barack Obama at the White House. Just six days later, she died in the crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407. She was flying to Buffalo to mark her late husband’s birthday, which fell around that time, and to support a scholarship established in his name.