Remembering TWA Flight 800

Twenty years ago last Sunday, July 17, TWA Flight 800 lifted off from John F. Kennedy International Airport on its way to Paris, but about 12 minutes from its take-off point, something went terribly wrong and the Boeing 747 airplane exploded over the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches. All 230 passengers and crew died.

Included among those who died were Judy Penzer, a Lawrence native, and Renee Greene, of North Woodmere.

Penzer was a well known artist, especially for her large murals of sports figures that graced buildings in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, her adopted hometown of Pittsburgh and other places throughout the U.S.

“She could do any style of mural; she was a highly trained artist, off to Paris to see the world," her brother, Richard Penzer, a Lawrence resident, said after the incident. A plaque in memory of Judy is affixed to the Queens Family Court Building, where a few of her murals adorn the courthouse.