Click here to go to our coverage of the speakers at today’s memorial for Margaret Anderson.
UPDATED AT 4:04 P.M. WITH NEW ROUTE
The public service to honor the life of Mount Rainier National Park ranger Margaret Anderson will begin at 1 p.m. Tuesday at Olson Auditorium at Pacific Lutheran University.
Among the people scheduled to speak are Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis (he is a former Mount Rainier superintendent), Mount Rainier Superintendent Randy King, two of Anderson’s ranger co-workers and three ministers. Gov. Chris Gregoire also is scheduled to attend.
The memorial is expected to last about 90 minutes.
The auditorium holds about 3,000 people, and organizers expect about 4,000 people to attend. Because of that, the National Park Service is asking the general public to attend the service at an overflow venue so rangers and law enforcement officers can pack the auditorium. A live feed will be shown at Rainier View Christian Church, 12305 Spanaway Loop Road, Tacoma. There also will be overflow locations where the video feed will be shown at Mary Baker Russell Building and Trinity Lutheran Church on the PLU campus.
The memorial also will be shown live on Northwest Cable News, KIRO 7 and KING 5 and streamed online at thenewstribune.com.
People who want to watch the procession for Anderson Tuesday, it will start at Lakewood Fire Station 21 at 9:30 a.m. and proceed to Pacific Lutheran University, arriving about 10 a.m.
Officials organizing the event just announced a change in the procession route. It will now be:
The new route is:
- Depart Mountain View Funeral Home
- East on Steilacoom Boulevard Southwest
- South on South Tacoma Way
- East on South 96th Street South
- South on Steele Street South
- East on 112th Street South
- South on C Street South
- West on Wheeler Street South
- Arrive Trinity Lutheran Church
While the service is being held, the park itself will be open, at least as far as Longmire. Mount Rainier leaders have asked for assistance from other parks and its own volunteers to keep open the entrance station, Longmire Museum, park roads and other services.
Anderson, a law enforcement ranger, was shot and killed New Year’s Day when she tried to stop the vehicle driven by Benjamin Barnes after he drove through a tire chain checkpoint. Barnes, also a suspect in the shooting of four people in Skyway early on Jan. 1, was found dead the next day. He had drown in Paradise Creek. She is survived by her husband, Eric, also a law enforcement ranger at the park, and two daughters, ages 3 and 1.
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