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Barbara Kay Olson (née Bracher; December 27, 1955September 11, 2001) was an American lawyer and
Olson was a passenger on
Wife of Solicitor General alerted him of hijacking from plane
Barbara Olson Mourned at Arlington Service
Barbara Olson: A Sparkling Celebrity 'Full of Energy'
Newsday.com-Victims Search * Alfred S. Regnery (September 17, 2001)
"Barbara Olson, RIP"
'' Human Events''/BNet Research Center. {{DEFAULTSORT:Olson, Barbara 1955 births 2001 deaths 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American women lawyers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American lawyers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American women lawyers 21st-century American women writers American Airlines Flight 77 victims American political commentators American political writers American women television personalities Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law alumni Lawyers from Washington, D.C. Lawyers from Houston People murdered in Virginia Terrorism deaths in Virginia University of St. Thomas (Texas) alumni Washington, D.C., Republicans Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr associates Television personalities from Texas Yeshiva University alumni
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
television commentator who worked for CNN
Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...
, Fox News Channel
The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American multinational conservative news and political commentary television channel and website based in New York City, U.S. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is ow ...
, and several other outlets. She was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 77
American Airlines Flight 77 was a scheduled domestic transcontinental passenger flight from Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia to Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles. The Boeing 757-200 aircraft serving the flig ...
en route to a taping of Bill Maher
William MaherStated on ''Finding Your Roots'', January 12, 2016, PBS; on a series that lists "Jr." and "Sr." distinctions, Bill Maher's birth name was listed simply as William Maher, while his father was William Aloysius Maher Jr., and his pa ...
's television show ''Politically Incorrect
"Political correctness" (adjectivally "politically correct"; commonly abbreviated to P.C.) is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in society. ...
'' when it was flown into the Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense, in Arlington County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The building was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As ...
in the September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
.
Early life
Olson was born Barbara Kay Bracher inHouston
Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
, Texas
Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
, on December 27, 1955. Her older sister, Toni Bracher-Lawrence, was a member of the Houston City Council
The Houston City Council is a city council for the city of Houston in the U.S. state of Texas.
The Council has sixteen members: eleven from council districts and five elected at-large. The members of the Council are elected every four years, wi ...
from 2004 to 2010. She graduated from Waltrip High School.
Personal life
She marriedTheodore Olson
Theodore Bevry Olson (September 11, 1940 – November 13, 2024) was an American lawyer who served as the 42nd solicitor general of the United States from 2001 to 2004 in the administration of President George W. Bush. He previously served as t ...
in 1996, becoming his third wife.
Olson was a frequent critic of the Bill Clinton administration and wrote a book about then– First Lady Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...
, ''Hell to Pay: The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton'' (1999). Olson's second book, ''The Final Days: The Last, Desperate Abuses of Power by the Clinton White House'' was published posthumously.
Death and legacy
Olson was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 77
American Airlines Flight 77 was a scheduled domestic transcontinental passenger flight from Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia to Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles. The Boeing 757-200 aircraft serving the flig ...
, on her way to a taping of ''Politically Incorrect
"Political correctness" (adjectivally "politically correct"; commonly abbreviated to P.C.) is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in society. ...
'' in Los Angeles, when it was flown into the Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense, in Arlington County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The building was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As ...
in the September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
.
Her original plan had been to fly to California on September 10, but she waited until the next day so that she could wake up with her husband on his birthday, September 11. At the National September 11 Memorial, Olson's name is located on Panel S-70 of the South Pool, along with those of other passengers of Flight 77.
Three months after the attacks, Olson's remains were identified. She was buried at her family's retreat in Wisconsin.
Since November of 2001, the Federalist Society
The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies (FedSoc) is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative and Libertarianism in the United States, libertarian legal organization that advocates for a Textualism, textualist an ...
has given a lecture honoring her at their annual National Lawyers Convention.
In popular culture
*Canadian actress Marsha Mason portrayed Barbara Olson in the Canadian TV series ''Mayday
Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications.
It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by aviators and mariners, but in some countries local organiz ...
'' Season 16: Episode 2 (2016) called "9/11: The Pentagon Attack" and '' Air Crash Investigation Special Report'' Season 2: Episode 1 (2019) called "Headline News".
Books
* *References
External links
* * *Wife of Solicitor General alerted him of hijacking from plane
Barbara Olson Mourned at Arlington Service
Barbara Olson: A Sparkling Celebrity 'Full of Energy'
Newsday.com-Victims Search * Alfred S. Regnery (September 17, 2001)
"Barbara Olson, RIP"
'' Human Events''/BNet Research Center. {{DEFAULTSORT:Olson, Barbara 1955 births 2001 deaths 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American women lawyers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American lawyers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American women lawyers 21st-century American women writers American Airlines Flight 77 victims American political commentators American political writers American women television personalities Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law alumni Lawyers from Washington, D.C. Lawyers from Houston People murdered in Virginia Terrorism deaths in Virginia University of St. Thomas (Texas) alumni Washington, D.C., Republicans Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr associates Television personalities from Texas Yeshiva University alumni