A SOLDIER'S STORY; ANNA RESERVIST, KILLED IN GULF WAR, REMEMBERED THIS DAY

ANNA, Ill. -- The headlines in July 1991 told of Army Reserve Lt. Lorraine M. Lawton being killed in a car crash while on duty during the Gulf War.

But folks in Anna remember Lorrie Moyer, a smiling girl with long blond hair and a love for reading, languages and children. She was born May 8, 1963, and died July 10, 1991.

"I called her `Lo,'" said Dee Blakley, Lorrie's best friend at Anna-Jonesboro Community High School and now registrar at Shawnee Community College. Back then Blakley was known as "Dee Dee" and the two were nearly inseparable.

"She was just this Pentecostal girl, very laid back and easy going," Blakley recalled. "We had lunch hours together. She was a very, very, very intelligent person, but it was her sense of humor that drew me to her.

"She was also a sucker for babies and animals. In my family there are a lot of babies, so we sort of adopted her."

That was in 1979. Their friendship survived the ups and downs of high school. After graduation in 1981, Lawton went on to Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.

"Lorrie planned to major in computer science," Blakley said. "But she wasn't happy. After much soul searching she decided to go with her original love psychology and French."

In languages, Lorrie excelled. She chose to pursue a master's degree in the romance Languages, French and Italian.

She was taking an Italian course as part of her master's work when she met her husband the course professor. Lorrie challenged Ben Lawton, 18 years her senior, to a racquetball match. As he tells it, "I won the match but lost my heart."

Ben was involved in the Army reserves, so Lorrie took a look at the program. She learned that by enlisting the Army would help repay her student loans. She signed up.

"I thought it was an exercise in futility," Blakley said. "She loved it. When she got back from basics she was so excited. She told me, `It just pushes you so hard.' She got excellent ratings across the board on the physical tests, which apparently is difficult to achieve."

After earning her master's degree, Lorrie completed the coursework for a doctorate in romance languages. Her Ph.D. was awarded posthumously.

Lorrie travelled to France in the summer of 1990 to teach for sixth months. Her husband planned a sabbatical and followed her in August. In November their reserve unit was activated for Operation Desert Shield.

As it turned out, Lorrie shined in her reserve work, Blakley said. She worked with a communications unit in charge of, among other things, logistics for Gen. Norman Schwartzkopf.

Lorrie had her photo taken with "Stormin' Norman" after a pep talk to her unit following a round of Scud missile attacks.

"She was fluent in French and Italian and knew about languages," she said.

Sixty tanks were donated to the operation by Italy, but the directions were in Italian. Lorrie translated the manuals and the dashboard labels to English. "But that wasn't good enough," Blakley said. "She went down on the line with the guys to make sure they understood what she had translated."

Said Blakley: "She hated the way the Saudis treated women. `Little Miss Physically Fit' that she was, she wanted to use the health club. But the Saudi Arabian officials would not allow women to use the health club except during bizarre hours. Lorrie complained to her boss, but he said he was busy. If she wanted something done she had to do it herself."

She did Lorrie convinced the Saudi general in charge to allow female soldiers to use the club during normal hours.

Lorrie was on a mission to help her fellow soldiers when she was killed.

"Ironically, she had just enlisted for another three years," Blakley said. "She was on her way to deliver paperwork for some troops to get R&R. The person she needed to sign the papers wasn't in, but she felt responsible, so she was driving to get the papers signed."

Lorrie's vehicle ran into the back of a parked bus. "They still don't know why it happened," Blakley said.

Tragically, Lorrie's husband was in a convoy trailing her vehicle. He and other soldiers ran to assist with the accident. Lawton found his wife with a broken leg and a bad bump on her head. Within hours at the hospital, she was dead.

For Ben Lawton, the death of his young bride is still a fresh wound, said Blakley. So is it for Lorrie's mother, Carolyn Moyer, who lives in Anna.

Blakley said: "I cry a lot. I really miss her. We went so far as to name our daughter after her."

Blakley's aunt, Wanda Dillow said, "When I see Dee Dee's daughter, Emily Lorraine, named for Lorrie, I always think of her. She would have loved that having a namesake. And Emily is such a precious child."

Dillow still keeps a letter from Lorrie and the picture of her with Schwartzkopf on her desk at school.

"She and Dee Dee were best friends," Dillow said. "When Dee Dee was at my house, Lorrie was there, too."

Lorrie also babysat for Dillow's sons and worked as a part-time secretary at the Dillow's family business.

Lorrie went to college, met her husband and built a new life away from Anna. But, Dillow said, whenever she returned to visit her family, she made time for her friends.

"She would always give a call and we'd go over and visit," Dillow said. "A lot of people don't take the time to call, but Lorrie always did. Her friends meant something to her. That's probably why I kept in contact with her when she went overseas."

Dillow teaches fourth grade at Davie Elementary in Anna. Her students during the war started a correspondence with Lawton.

"We had a thing with Weekly Reader on the Middle East, and, of course, everything erupted. We followed the war on a daily basis. All my kids began to write and ask questions," Dillow said.

In her letters, Lorrie wrote each individual child a little message. "Maybe it would be just a paragraph each, to answer questions they had," Dillow said.

But the children loved it.

"She sent pictures, including one of her with Schwartzkopf. One time she sent them each a balloon."

"They loved it," she said. "They loved the fact that they actually got something back in the mail. They also loved her messages.

"They felt like they were on the front. Lorrie loved children. She was a very intelligent person, but she was able to write so the children understood just what she was telling them."

School was out on summer vacation when Lorrie was killed. When school resumed in the fall, Dillow's students had advanced to the fifth grade and not much was mentioned about their pen pal.

But Lorrie has not been forgotten, and, in fact, she is still making new friends. Carolyn Midkiff of McClure, Ill. never met Lorrie, but got to know her through remembrances of Blakley. "She was just an amazing person," Midkiff said. "She did so much and touched so many people. She's just amazing."

"There are many things about war that appall us, but we strive for justice in an unjust world. Maybe it all makes sense in some higher plan; wish we knew what that was."

Lorrie Moyer Lawton

May 8, 1963-July 10, 1991