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Grandparents, missionaries and family of five among crash victims

May 14, 1996
Web posted at: 1:25 a.m. EDT

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Honors student Laura Sawyer felt a lifetime of highs and lows Monday as she accepted her college's highest honor and struggled with the loss of her grandparents, who died in a plane crash while on their way to see her accept the award.

As recovery crews picked their way through the thick swamp that swallowed ValuJet Flight 592 Monday, a clearer picture emerged of some of the 109 people who died in Saturday's crash.

Among those listed as passengers on the flight were a Baptist church organist and his wife on a dream vacation, a young man preparing for missionary work in his native Venezuela and a mother and daughter who had recently renewed their friendship.

ValuJet Airlines President Lewis Jordan said Sunday, "Every human being in every seat of the airplane is a life and a loved one with stories to tell, with friends, with places to go."

Indeed, there are stories to tell -- at least 109.

Passengers Conway Hamilton and his wife, Laurie Hamilton, of Coral Gables, Florida, were heading to their granddaughter's college graduation.

"It's the worst thing in the world you think of and the last thing you expect," the granddaughter, Sawyer, told The Miami Herald. "They were real excited about coming up. I was their first grandchild to graduate from college."

Sawyer

Sawyer, 22, struggled to hold back tears Monday as she received the Britain Award, Emory University's highest honor for undergraduates.

"My grandparents knew that I was going to receive the Britain Award and they were so excited to be traveling to Atlanta so we could all share the moment," Sawyer told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

McNitts family

A family of five, the McNitts, was returning home from a cruise in South Florida. A former Kansas City Chiefs cheerleader, Lisa Pearson, who had just won a beauty pageant, was returning from a trip to Florida, part of her prize.

Dan and Linda Jarvis, a church organist and a dental hygienist, were high school sweethearts who lost touch in college. After separate failed marriages they were reunited and married in 1993.

"They were just so happy," said Sharon Jarvis Moss, Dan's sister. "I wouldn't know how to describe it, but they were clearly meant to be together."

After years of planning, the Jarvises were returning from their dream vacation -- a Caribbean cruise -- aboard ValuJet Flight 592.

Kim Rennolds would have turned 21 this Mother's Day. Instead, authorities were searching the Florida Everglades on Sunday for the bodies of Rennolds and her 49-year-old mother, Donna.

The mother and daughter, who had developed a closer relationship in recent years, spent the week before Mother's Day scuba diving off the Florida Keys. They were returning home to Michigan.

Carlos Gonzalez is also listed as one of the passengers. He came to the United States from Venezuela less than two years ago to get the education he needed to return to his homeland as a missionary.

Gonzalez, 24, had returned from a weeklong trip with three friends and his niece to Venezuela when they boarded ValuJet Flight 592.

"They were on a fact-finding mission for future missionary- type trips," said Lee Rogers, a friend. "He was following what God was calling him to do."

Roger and Dana Lane, who also lived near Atlanta, had traveled to Venezuela with Gonzalez. So had Ray Lathem, a pastor's son. He also was considering a career in the ministry, Rogers said.

After marrying less than a year ago, Roger Lane, 36, and Dana, 26, taught English to Hispanic children in the Atlanta area. They were considering doing the same in Central America, a friend said.

Gonzalez's niece, Lila Viloleta, accompanied her uncle on his return trip so she could spend more time with him. He visited with his parents before returning to Miami last weekend.

"That was one small consolation," Rogers said. "He got to see his parents."

Ella Mitchell was always one of the first to volunteer when the Rev. James Crowley or anyone else at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Miami asked for help. At the recent parish fish fry, it was Mitchell who cooked more than 200 fish and 150 chickens.

Mitchell, 58, knew just about everyone at St. Francis, a small parish of about 150 families, Crowley said. There wasn't anyone she didn't know or someone's life she hadn't touched, he said.

Family always came first for Ella Mitchell, her husband said. "She looked after the kids first and me and her later. You just don't find people like that."

CNN Correspondent Brian Cabell and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Victims of Flight 592
| Story | Gallery One | Gallery Two | Gallery Three | Passenger List |

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