Before Yvonne Selke planted roots in Virginia, the woman who along with her daughter Emily was killed in the Germanwings plane crash, walked the halls of Springfield High School in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
"She was always kind to everybody. Very outgoing, just very outgoing," her former classmate, Carol Lamon, told NBC10 on Thursday.
"It's unbelievable," Lamon said. Yvonne Selke was a 1975 graduate of Springfield High and planned to attend her class' 40th reunion this fall.
The 58-year-old defense contractor and her 25-year-old daughter, a 2013 Drexel University graduate, were flying from Barcelona to Düsseldorf on Monday when their Airbus jet slammed into the French Alps. French prosecutors say the Germanwings co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, barricaded himself in the cockpit and steered the plane into the mountainside. All 150 passengers and crew onboard were killed on impact. They could be heard screaming on the cockpit voice recorder before the collision, according to prosecutors.
The reason for the apparent murder remains unclear.
Back in Springfield, Yvonne's sister-in-law lives in the neighborhood where she grew up. Still grieving, the woman did not want to speak publicly.
But Yvonne's former classmates are honoring her with a tribute on the reunion's website. And they're sending condolences to the Selke family.
"Its gonna take a long time to heal ...," Lamon said.
