Energy, a great smile, love and support for those she held dear—these are just a few of the things her friends and family loved about Courtney.
Courtney was a scholar-athlete at Marian High School, a member of the National Honor Society and Senior Class First Vice President. She received the Presidential Academic Excellence Award, was a Michigan Competitive Scholar and an Otterbein Scholar. Recruited to play varsity tennis for Villanova University near Philadelphia, she had been Varsity Co-Captain, Most Valuable Player, and a Regional Champion in high school tennis.
Julie McKnight, Marian’s Varsity Tennis Coach, remembered her as an intelligent, capable young woman who “had a great sense of humor. I think she had a kind of quiet confidence. She was one in a million as far as dealing with life’s bumps. She was remarkably resilient and just as bouncy as you’d expect a tennis player to be.”
In her hometown of Clarkston, Michigan, Courtney received the 1996 Clarkston Area Youth Assistance Award for four years of participation in Righteous Mission, a camp sponsored by Clarkston United Methodist Church, where teens make home repairs and improvements for one week each summer. A school essay she wrote about the program recalled building wheelchair ramps for senior citizens and an adolescent with Muscular Dystrophy. "You can't imagine how hard it is to say goodbye," she wrote.
“What 18-year-old do you know who has given so much in so few years?” asked youth pastor John Leece at Courtney’s memorial service in 1996. The church was overflowing with teenagers, parents, and family—there to pay tribute to a sweet and vibrant young woman who was on the threshold of her adult life. “Hold those memories of a life of faith and service”
“Courtney was love in action” stated Pastor Doug Trebilcock. “We hurt and are in sorrow for those promises unfulfilled. But this is not God’s will. God weeps.” he said.
Courtney was a scholar-athlete at Marian High School, a member of the National Honor Society and Senior Class First Vice President. She received the Presidential Academic Excellence Award, was a Michigan Competitive Scholar and an Otterbein Scholar. Recruited to play varsity tennis for Villanova University near Philadelphia, she had been Varsity Co-Captain, Most Valuable Player, and a Regional Champion in high school tennis.
Julie McKnight, Marian’s Varsity Tennis Coach, remembered her as an intelligent, capable young woman who “had a great sense of humor. I think she had a kind of quiet confidence. She was one in a million as far as dealing with life’s bumps. She was remarkably resilient and just as bouncy as you’d expect a tennis player to be.”
In her hometown of Clarkston, Michigan, Courtney received the 1996 Clarkston Area Youth Assistance Award for four years of participation in Righteous Mission, a camp sponsored by Clarkston United Methodist Church, where teens make home repairs and improvements for one week each summer. A school essay she wrote about the program recalled building wheelchair ramps for senior citizens and an adolescent with Muscular Dystrophy. "You can't imagine how hard it is to say goodbye," she wrote.
“What 18-year-old do you know who has given so much in so few years?” asked youth pastor John Leece at Courtney’s memorial service in 1996. The church was overflowing with teenagers, parents, and family—there to pay tribute to a sweet and vibrant young woman who was on the threshold of her adult life. “Hold those memories of a life of faith and service”
“Courtney was love in action” stated Pastor Doug Trebilcock. “We hurt and are in sorrow for those promises unfulfilled. But this is not God’s will. God weeps.” he said.
Courtney was killed on July 17 1996 while aboard TWA Flight 800. She was on her way to Paris, France, to spend two weeks with a French friend whom her family had hosted the prior year as an exchange student.
15 minutes into the flight the overheated fuel tank of the plane exploded over Long Island, NY, killing all 230 persons on board.
An extensive investigation concluded that sparks from a faulty fuel pump ignited the vapors in the fuel tank.