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In remembrance

USPS honors employees who died in 2001 attacks

Joan Jackson, Joseph Curseen Jr.’s sister, touches the plaque that honors him and Thomas Morris Jr. during the Oct. 21 dedication ceremony.
Joan Jackson, Joseph Curseen Jr.’s sister, touches the plaque that honors him and Thomas Morris Jr. during the Oct. 21 dedication ceremony.

The Postal Service has dedicated a memorial to the two employees who died as a result of inhaling anthrax in 2001.

The memorial honoring Joseph Curseen Jr. and Thomas Morris Jr. is located at the Washington, DC, processing and distribution center where the men worked. USPS named the facility in their honor in 2003.

The memorial features a large plaque with their pictures and benches inscribed with their names.

“The Postal Service is, first and foremost, a family. We are joined together to pay tribute to our fallen brothers and acknowledge the loss,” Capital Metro Area VP Linda Malone said at the Oct. 21 dedication ceremony.

The memorial will ensure their service “will be shared with future members of the postal family,” Malone said.

During the 2001 attacks, letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to several news organizations and the U.S. Senate. Five people died and 17 others were injured.

The dedication ceremony also featured remarks from Capital District Manager Salvatore Vacca; Dena Briscoe, president of American Postal Workers Union Local 140; Calvin Vines, president of National Postal Mail Handlers Union Local 305; and government mail clerks Minnie Stokes and Otis Frazier.

Joan Jackson, Curseen’s sister, also spoke, thanking participants for keeping alive the memory of her brother and Morris.

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