Clan William: Munson Connection to the Tragedy of 9/11

David and Lynn Angell

I'm back after more than a year of working on fleshing out the entire Clan William of the Munson
Family. Capt Thomas Munson, hailing from Rattlesden, Suffolk, England, came to Boston in America between 1632 and 1634. He was one of the earliest applicants to move to the new territory bought from the Quinnipac Indians of New Haven (now in Connecticut) in 1639. Munson's great grandchildren make up the "Clans" of his family. I descend from Clan William. My 2x great grandmother was a Munson. She was Mary Anne Munson who married William Custer Smith and resided in Iowa at the times of their deaths. This story takes us far away from our humble Munsons to the bright lights of Hollywood.

This story connects to Thomas Munson in this manner:

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel Munson > William Munson > William Munson II > William Munson > Clarissa Munson > Sarah Nichols > Foster Webb Eggleston > Pearl V Eggleston > Raymond Foster Myers > Marilyn Myers > Marilyn Lynn Edwards m. David Angell

Marilyn Myers, whose family had hailed from New York, Ohio, and then Michigan, married Thomas Edward Henry, Jr. of Alabama. The couple settled in Montgomery, Alabama around 1942. In 1946, their first child arrived. On 11 Aug 1949, their second child, Mary Lynn, arrived. Mary Lynn attended Auburn University, planning a career as a librarian.

Around 1970, Mary Lynn met David Angell, who was working on Cape Cod at the Eastward Ho Country Club. Mary Lynn was waitressing there. On Aug 4, 1971, the two married and settled in Providence, Rhode Island. 

Lynn worked as a librarian and David worked as an insurance technical writer. David was very creative and this work did little to create any kind of creative outlet. In 1977, the two decided to give Hollywood a try and while Mary Lynn supported them as a librarian, David struggled to make a go of it in Hollywood, selling a few scripts here and there. He finally got his big break when an episode he had written for the TV series, "Cheers," won an Emmy.

This led to a collaboration with famous TV producers David Lee and Peter Casey. Their first venture together was the TV series "Wings." The second was the "Cheers" spinoff, "Frasier."

By The documentary film 9/11.,
Fair use,
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13622822

On 11 Sep 2001, Lynn and David were headed home from their vacation on Cape Cod attending a family wedding back to their home in Pasadena on American Flt 11, when hijackers took over the plane. Flt 11 was the first aircraft to hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center. All 92 souls on the aircraft died and the total death count attributed to the impact of the aircraft was 1,402.

Lynn and David had no children. They supported the Hillside Schools and the Pasadena Playhouse. Their Foundation still exists and gives to other worthy philanthropic endeavors.

 

People in Pasadena, where the Angells permanently lived in one of three homes they had in the L.A. area, were especially saddened by the loss, considering how much time, money and resources the wealthy but discrete power couple had contributed, especially to organizations working with impoverished and neglected children, here and around L.A. County with their Angell Foundation.

And perhaps few others felt that loss more acutely than John Hitchcock, at the time the executive director of Hillsides home for abused and emotionally disturbed children. John Hitchcock was surprised when Lynn Edwards Angell walked into his office at Hillsides School, a Pasadena, Calif., home for abused and emotionally disturbed children, and described herself as a "retired librarian" willing to do the volunteer library work he had advertised. "She seemed awfully young to be retired," he said.

That was more than a decade ago. Mr. Hitchcock, the school's director, soon learned that Mrs. Angell, a soft-spoken native of Birmingham, Ala., was married to David Angell, a rising star in Hollywood's community of television writers and producers. He also quickly discovered that Mrs. Angell had the dynamism and financial resources -- she gave the money anonymously -- to play a major role in transforming a small collection of books in the corner of the auditorium into a much larger library with its own building.

Weeks after Mrs. Angell's death at 52 in the hijacking of American Airlines Flight 11, Mr. Hitchcock continued to discover new dimensions to her contributions. "She quietly did things like paying for golf lessons for a child who expressed an interest to her," Mr. Hitchcock said.

"She knew all 66 kids by name. She sent each one a postcard from Cape Cod this summer."

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on November 26, 2001.