South Bay : Quilt Honors Victims of Oklahoma Bombing

Two Hawthorne quilters are putting the finishing touches on a quilt they crafted to honor victims of the Oklahoma City bombing last year. Once completed, they plan to take the patchwork to city officials in memory of the April 19 anniversary of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building blast.

Rosemarie McNair and Linda Brown started stitching the quilt, last June at their church, the Del Aire Assembly of God. The quilt features the names of the 169 blast victims embroidered across gold fabric shaped like the state of Oklahoma. An Oklahoma state flag hangs above the state with the title: “In Memory of.”

The friends, who made a quilt for the military to show their support for the Persian Gulf War, met every Tuesday for four hours and Brown took the quilt home to embroider the victims’ names.

McNair said their pastor, Al Wise, asked them to make the quilt and will join them on their trip to Oklahoma City in two weeks when they present the quilt to the city.

“We wanted to make this contribution to let the people in Oklahoma know that we felt sorrow for their loss,” McNair said.