Bald Knob family remembering Malissa White, a loved one & 9/11 victim whose remains still have not been identified

BALD KNOB, Ark. – From Bald Knob to Brooklyn, Malissa White was one of the thousands of lives lost on 9/11.

The videos and sounds of the tragedy still bring White’s family back to that scariest day 23 years later. Their loved one was doing her job in human resources for Marsh & McLennan Companies before a hijacked plane crashed through the 99th floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center where she was working.

Her cousin, Marva Baker Holiday, remembers her as more than a name etched in history, but a mentor.

“Kids in Bald Knob, Searcy, Kensett, just the White County area. She had a white Grand Am, and she would load us up in that Grand Am and make several trips to take us to different activities,” Holiday remembered. “She wanted us to have exposure to a lot of different things.”

Trustworthy, kind, a Sunday school teacher in Arkansas and New York, these memories of White are what her loved ones hold onto because, for 23 years now, it’s all they’ve had.

Through DNA testing, the Office of Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York has reconnected 1,650 families with what remains of their loved ones. Each year there are more, but 1,103 including White are still unidentified or missing.

“Not having her remains has been tough,” Holiday said.

About every five years, White’s family tries to be at ground zero where they say Malissa feels closest to them. In 2011, on the 10th anniversary of the attack, Sylvia Ball, sister to White, read her sister’s name and others before presidents, senators and governors at the memorial.

“My sister Malissa Yvette White. We love you. We miss you. We’ll never forget you,” Ball said.

Holiday said her family initially searched New York for days hoping she might be alive but too injured to reach out before holding a memorial months later.

With hope of an earthly reunion fading, they cling to a greater hope they have no doubt in.

“Even if we never find her physical remains, we know where her spirit and soul are, so we have comfort in that,” Holiday said.

According to White’s family in their last conversation with the family of Batesville 9/11 victim Sara Low, they heard her remains are also missing or unidentified.

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