Jane Simpkin

Jane Simpkin
United Flight 175

From her upper arms to her calves, Jane Simpkin proudly wore detailed Celtic and Native American-styled tattoos.

But despite the uniqueness of Simpkin's body markings--and the fact that her two sisters have described her in detail to authorities--they hold out little hope of ever being able to bury their 36-year-old sibling.

"We don't think they will ever recover anything," said Simpkin's sister, Helen Simpkin-Whalen. "The only solace I take away from this is that I know the ashes that were my sister are now all over the world. She's everywhere."

Simpkin died while aboard United Airlines Flight 175, which crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center.

The daughter of a man who traveled the world for a chemical company, Simpkin, 36, of Wayland, Mass., was raised all over the world, from England to Colombia.

While in college, she began getting interested in the burgeoning punk rock movement, which pushed her toward her current career as a representative of rock bands in the Boston area.

Last year, Simpkin began attending the Massachusetts School of Law with an eye toward becoming a criminal prosecutor.

"She would have wanted to right the wrongs," said Simpkin-Whalen.

Profile courtesy of THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE.


'An Ongoing Art Project'


Jane Simpkin seemed drawn to the unusual, and vice versa. When she was standing on her mother's porch in Wayland, Mass., one day, a baby bald eagle landed at her feet. While she was driving to work one time, a bright blue parakeet flew into the car.

She was amassing tattoos, which her sister Laura called "an ongoing art project." There was a British lion on each of her shoulder blades, applied when she visited England recently, and a gryphon on her chest. She loved to travel; often the tattoos were mementos of places she visited.

She worked for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, but her plan was to become an entertainment lawyer. Last Sept. 11, she was a passenger on United Airlines Flight 175, on her way to Los Angeles for a meeting.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on September 10, 2002.




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