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The nine people shot to death a year ago at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., were remembered over the weekend in Utah.
On Sunday, the Trinity AME Church in Salt Lake City held a program filled with song and prayer in honor of the Charleston Nine. The event, attended by about 50 people, included a performance by the choir from the Hilltop United Methodist Church in Sandy at Trinity AME, 239 E. 600 South.
Members of the churches' congregations who had volunteered to learn more about the victims described their lives in brief remarks.
On June 17, 2015, a gunman shot and killed the nine people, who were among a group at a Bible study at Emanuel AME Church. Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old man who allegedly has white supremacist views, has been charged in the slayings.
At the Salt Lake City event, Lee Johnson remembered the oldest victim, 87-year-old Susie Jackson, a long time Emanuel AME Church member.
Al Kalashnikov spoke about the youngest victim, 26-year-old Tywanza Sanders, a recent college graduate who was Jackson's nephew and took the first bullet as he lunged to protect his aunt.
Kalashnikov also remembered the Rev. Daniel Simmons, 74, an assistant pastor who was splitting his time between Emanuel AME and another church. He referred to Sanders and Simmons as "fallen soldiers."
Ethel Lance, 70, who was Jackson's cousin, had worked at the church for more than three decades, Steve Beatty said. Myra Thompson, 59, was teaching Bible study the night she was killed, he said.
Mary Ann Travis said she called Cynthia Hurd's husband and learned the 54-year-old librarian was kind "even when others weren't kind."
"She had a smile that would light up a room," Hurd recounted Arthur Hurd saying about his late wife.
Kathy Morris called the Rev. Depayne Middleton-Doctor — a minister and mother of four — "an angel on Earth" who lived a remarkable life. The 49-year-old retired last year as Charleston County director of the Community Development Block Grant Program and had been working at Southern Wesleyan University as admissions coordinator for the school's Charleston learning center, Morris said.
Richetta Glover pointed out that the high school where the Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton was a coach had a vigil in her honor, which showed the 45-year-old mother of three was loved. In addition to coaching, Coleman-Singleton also worked as a speech pathologist and was a part-time minister at Emanuel AME Church, Glover said.
Trinity's pastor, the Rev. Nurjhan Govan, noted the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, 41, Emanuel AME's pastor and a member of South Carolina's legislature, was called to the ministry at age 13 and was appointed a pastor at 18.
She said Pinckney once stopped by Trinity when he was in Utah and they spoke about her church.
"He was personable," she said. "He had a humble spirit."
Twitter: @PamelaMansonSLC