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Columbia Memorial Held Monday

Commemorating the seventh anniversary of the STS-107 Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy, a group of approximately 50 people gathered at the Shuttle Memorial in bitterly cold weather in Hemphill on Monday.

Ceremonies were opened by Steve Mills who welcomed everyone and read a brief biography of the seven astronauts who perished on re-entry and the three who were killed in a helicopter crash during the search effort. 

Pastor Aaron Pardue of First Baptist Church in Hemphill led the assembled in prayer and was followed by Columbia Memorial Committee member Marsha Cooper with the U.S. Forest Service who read Joshua 1:6-9, which was the scripture read by Columbia Commander Rick Husband.

A moment of silence was observed at 8:01AM, the time of the tragedy on February 1, 2003.

Featured speaker was Hemphill City Manager Don Iles who told the crowd that it was proper and appropriate that on this anniversary of the tragedy people would gather at this spot, which became an instant memorial filled with flowers, teddy bears and personal notes, to remember the hero’s who perished.

Iles said that within minutes of the tragedy, the city of Hemphill and Sabine County demonstrated to the world what a good and decent people could do during a time of tragedy and grief.

“It was our town who bravely and reverently rescued the remains of the brave astronauts,” Iles said, “The citizens of our community volunteered to help those they never knew, in a time of need.”

Columbia Committee member Belinda Gay told the crowd the committee wanted to make what had been initially a temporary memorial during and shortly after the tragedy, into a permanent memorial to honor all who perished and those volunteers who worked tirelessly during the recovery efforts.

The recently completed memorial is a beautiful tile depiction of the STS-107 logo featured on a background of the American flag, including the date of the tragedy and the Committee’s slogan, “There Mission Became Our Mission” emblazoned around the perimeter.

Gay said that it took special tooling to create the over 1,000 tiles that make up the memorial and extended a special thank you to Roger Gay, Chad Gay and Steve Mills for the work they performed to install the tiles and complete the final touches that makes it such an impressive structure.

Also receiving praise for their efforts to establish and complete the memorial were the City of Hemphill, Chance Construction, Sealy Outdoors, TxDOT, Shelby Savings Bank and Mills Impressions.

Charlotte Krenek, wife of Charles Krenek with the Texas Forest Service who perished in a helicopter crash during the search efforts, attended at the event and said the crash made her closer to God and it was the support from her church that allowed her to get through the tragedy.