In Honor of Karen Ann Kincaid

She was smart, she was successful, she was well-liked, she was a good person.  She was everything you would want in a friend, spouse, sister  or colleague and then some.   Her name was Karen Ann Kincaid and she died on Sept 11, 2001.  She was a passenger on AA flight 77, which was  crashed into the Pentagon.

Karen grew up in Waverly, IA and came from a close, faithful family.  Her brother Kris Kincaid is  a Lutheran pastor in Dubuque, IA who looks forward to the day he sees his sister again in heaven.  He refuses to lose his life to hate.  "The terrorists can't take away that victory.  No way.", he says.

Kris describes his sister as hard-working and industrious.  Those who remember Karen growing up describe her a a shy girl who blossomed as she grew up.  Friends and colleagues remember her as someone who always made time in her busy schedule for neighbors and took the time to talk to the maintenance staff at her K Street law firm in Washington, D.C.

Despite her personal success in D.C., first as an attorney with the FCC and later in private practice, her small-town Iowa roots were ingrained in Karen.  This was evidenced in her down-to-earth manner, her regular trips home to visit family and her joy in simple pleasures like looking at cows and eating cotton candy at the Bremer County Fair.

She is remembered with much love by her husband, Peter Batacan, who describes her as the "better part of me" and their marriage as "a partnership in the truest sense".  Karen and Peter had been married just five years at the time of 9/11.

Peter offers this most touching tribute to Karen, "Even though her life was cut short at a young age (40), she made the best of it." "She lived every moment to be with loved ones and cultivate friendships."