MARY LOU HAGUE

Not Just Any Kind of Love

Mary Lou Hague, 26, a researcher with Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, was working in the south tower of the Trade Center on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Hague is the daughter of Liza Adams and the stepdaughter of Richard Adams, president of United Bancshares in Parkersburg. Family members have not heard from her since just before the first plane hit.

Liza Adams said she and her husband have not given up hope that Hague will be found. "She could be hurt and not have an ID on her," she said. "That's what we're hoping for."

Mary Lou Hague was a West Virginia girl who had come to New York three years ago and loved it. Or maybe it should be said that she loved it. Because, as her friend and one-time sorority sister Heather Fain remembers, when Mary Lou, loved something, she loved it big. She loved Michael Jackson, and spent $1,500 to see him the last weekend of her life. She loved 1980’s music. She loved Twizzlers. “She had given them up for Lent, I guess two Easters ago, and we went to church, but she had a pound bag of Twizzlers in her bag to take out as soon as we got out,” Ms. Fain said. “I took one, and took a bite and threw it away. She was, ‘What did you just do?’ “

With her shoulder-length hair and Miss America smile, she got her share of attention. There was a little romance, on New Year’s Eve 2000, with a scuba diving instructor at Club Med Martinique, but Ms. Hague, who lived near Gracie Mansion with a roommate, was thinking that she would like to meet a Southern guy, move back home to Parkersburg, W. Va., and have a dog. She worked as a financial analyst at Keefe Bruyette & Woods, on the 89^th floor of the second tower to be hit. Her entire floor, according to Ms. Hague’s mother, Liza Adams, was wiped out. Better to remember Ms. Hague doing what her friends called her happy dance, waving her arms in the air and, the minute she heard the music, hollering, “Woo-hooo!”

A MOTHER REMEMBERS: Mary Lou had a great time the Friday before the World Trade Center was attacked—she attended the Michael Jackson concert at Madison Square Garden. “She loved the concert,” says her mother, Liza Adams. “She said it was a monumental night in her life. She’d walk into a room and it’s like a light bulb went on,” says Adams. “And if the average person is 60 watts, she’d be 150 watts.”

Mary Lou Hague, KBW Contact: Dan Floyd 630-323-5900

Date of Service: October 7

Time: 2 P.M.

Place: Trinity Church, 430 Julina Street, Parkersburg, West Virginia. Telephone 304-422-3362

Donations may be made to:

Mary Lou Hague Scholarship Fund

c/o Parkersburg Community Foundation

United Square

Parkersburg, West Virginia 26101

Mary Lou lived on the block where I work. She always lit up the street whenever she walked by and always had a beautiful smile and a nice "Hello" whenever she passed. A definite nice person. On behalf of the staff at One Gracie Square, a sad goodbye to Mary Lou and condolences to her family and friends.

- Bob Marchand

Profiles published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on September 28, 2001, THE CHARLESTON GAZETTE ONLINE on September 13, 2001 and NEWSWEEK on September 28, 2001. Edited by Bob Marchand.