REMEMBERED,
NOT
FORGOTTEN
written by MADISON HOGAN
SK ANYONE WITH A MEMORY OF SEPT. 11, 2001, and they
can recount where they were when nearly 3,000 people were killed
in a hijacking plot against America as if it were yesterday. But it
A
wasn’t yesterday. This modern day of infamy will reach the 20th year anniversary
on Sept. 11, 2021.
As we remember the lives of those who were lost on that fateful day, as well
as the lives of first responders and soldiers that were lost in the aftermath of
illness and war as a result of that day, Cobb Life spoke to Cobb County residents
whose lives were especially touched by the Sept. 11 attacks.
A MEMORY LIVES
Cobb County resident Marianne Burke had just returned from a weekend at the
beach with her friends when news broke that airplanes had crashed into the Twin
Towers. Burke, who had grown up on Long Island, knew she was going to know
victims of the attacks. That morning, she was concerned for her brother-in-law,
Brad Noack, who worked at the World Trade Center in New York City.
“My dad probably called sometime around 11 o’clock or so,” she said. “I had
no idea my sister would be (at the World Trade Center).”
Burke’s youngest sister, Katherine “Katie” McGarry Noack, was asked by her
boss the night before to attend a conference at Windows of the World on the top
floor of the North Tower. That morning, she traveled to the World Trade Center
with her new husband, Brad Noack. They had married just five months prior,
with plans to travel to Australia, Brad Noack’s homeland, soon.
After American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into floors 93 through 99 of the
North Tower at 8:46 a.m., Brad Noack received a phone call from his new bride.
“She said that it was very smoky and she knew she was going to die so she
had gotten someone’s cell phone… she wanted her family to know that she
loved us,” Burke said.
Katie Noack was married just five months
prior to when she died in the Sept. 11
attacks on the World Trade Center in New
York City.
SEPTEMBER 2021 | COBB LIFE 11