9/11-The Lake Charles Connection

9/11/2001--It's a time-stamp day. Just about everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing when the first learned of the tragedy that, if only for a brief moment, united our country.  So many victims; so many families left asking "why?"

Two of those victims were from the Lake area:

The Lake Charles 9/11 Memorial at the Lake Charles Civic Center features two beams from the World Trade Center as well as a slab of limestone from the Pentagon. The two beams represent the two local victims of that horrible day.

Leo Russell Keene

- Born in Sulphur (November 13, 1967) Keene was working as a  financial analyst for Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

From Russell Obit:

Born in Sulphur, La., Mr. Keene was a 1985 graduate of Mary Immaculate High School in Key West, Fla. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Tampa in 1990 and an MBA in finance from that school three years later.

Although talented at numbers, Mr. Keene also felt the lure of wide open spaces. He trekked the New Zealand wilderness for two months in 1993, stopping off in Australia as well. In memory of that trip, he collected.

KEVIN WAYNE YOKUM

Kevin came from a family that had a long record of serving their country. Yokum joined the Navy just after High School and saw a great deal of the world.  Kevin had been working at the Pentagon as a radio specialist for about two years at the time of his death.

According to his sister , Trudie Ceasar, "The Navy is what he always wanted," she said. The two spoke by phone every Sunday in the years leading up to the tragedy. "Kevin was a fun-loving, silly guy," Ceasar said. "He was the life of every party."

Our prayers go out to the family and friends of both victims.