Faculty, students mourn loss of Palo Verde teacher

Terry Webster

Thursday, Sept. 13, 2001 | 10:30 a.m.

Barbara Edwards was the kind of friend who comes along at least once in a lifetime -- if you're lucky.

"She was my best friend," said Shannon Daigle, who met Edwards three years ago while the two were teaching at Palo Verde High School. "We were very close. We had a lot of fun, a lot of laughs."

Edwards was one of 64 on board a hijacked plane that was crashed into the Pentagon Tuesday. American Airlines officials have confirmed she was aboard. All passengers are presumed dead.

"I'm still having a hard time believing it," Daigle said.

Daigle is one of those closest to Edwards, 58, a foreign language teacher who had no relatives living in Las Vegas.

Reached at his Michigan home, Edwards' stepfather said the family is still in shock.

"It's unreal," Jack Vander Baan of Hopkins, Mich, said. "It still hasn't registered."

Vander Baan said that originally he was worried about his grandson, who used to work in the World Trade Center. At the time, Vander Baan was unaware that the grandson's office had been moved from the building more than a year ago.

"We had no idea Barbara was on that plane," Vander Baan said. "We figured it must have already taken off and that she would call us when her plane was grounded someplace else."

The call never came.

It was Daigle who began calling family members, Vander Baan said, expressing fears that Edwards was on the plane.

"I called American Airlines and asked about her, and the person I was talking to said, 'Let me have you talk to someone else,' " Vander Baan said. "That didn't sound good."

Ultimately the worst fears were confirmed.

Following the terrorist attacks, air traffic was halted, and it remains limited today, preventing family members from gathering. Vander Baan said family members are keeping in contact by telephone and are planning a memorial service Sept. 29.

Currently on a leave of absence from Palo Verde High, Edwards was on vacation when the tragedy hit.

"I had been taking care of her condo for the past 12 days," Daigle said.

Edwards was traveling over the Labor Day weekend to attend the wedding of a friend's daughter in Connecticut, then decided to extend her East Coast trip, stopping by her son Doug's house in New Jersey.

From there, Daigle said, Edwards went on to visit close friends, Bud and Dee Flagg in Virginia.

The three, who were traveling to the Flaggs' California home, all boarded American Airlines Flight 77 bound for Los Angeles. The plane crashed into the Pentagon shortly after takeoff.

Clark County School District officials are still reeling over the tragedy.

"All of us are feeling a horrible sense of loss," said Carlos Garcia, superintendent of the Clark County School District, the nation's sixth largest. "It really brings all of this home. It makes these attacks very personal."

The School Board planned a memorial service for Edwards at 5:30 p.m. at 2832 E. Flamingo Road.

Meanwhile, Palo Verde students and staff Wednesday set up a memorial area for Edwards in the school cafeteria.

Besides Vander Bann, survivors include her mother, Lissy Vander Baan; three sons, Mike Edwards of San Diego, Doug Edwards Jr. of Hoboken, N.J., and Scott Edwards of Beaufort, S.C.; a sister, Jane Gollan of Seattle; and two grandchildren.