Eckert died at age 57 on February 12, 2009, in the crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407 in Clarence Center, New York.

[1] When the planes hit the World Trade Center, Rooney called his wife and exchanged voice mail messages with her.

She left her job at General Re and volunteered with Habitat for Humanity and, beginning in September 2008, as a tutor at the Julia A. Stark Elementary School.

In honor of her husband and other victims, Eckert planted birch trees near a trail in Cove Island Park where she and Rooney learned to in-line skate.

At the Glenbrook train station, where her husband commuted to work, she commissioned a mural and planted a sycamore tree as a memorial.

On December 19, 2003, Eckert published her famous manifesto, "My Silence Cannot be Bought:"I've chosen to go to court rather than accept a payoff from the 9/11 victims compensation fund.

Instead, I want to know what went so wrong with our intelligence and security systems that a band of religious fanatics was able to turn four U.S passenger jets into an enemy force, attack our cities and kill 3,000 civilians with terrifying ease.

So I say to Congress, big business and everyone who conspired to divert attention from government and private-sector failures: My husband's life was priceless, and I will not let his death be meaningless.

[15] A week before her death, Eckert met with U.S. President Barack Obama, to discuss detainees at Guantanamo Bay and other matters.

[16] In a press conference after her death, Obama described her as a "tireless advocate for the families, those whose lives were forever changed on that September day.