Hannah O'Rourke, Whose Story of Loss Is Told in Come From Away, Dies at 91

Hannah O’Rourke, whose story of loss was told in the Broadway musical Come From Away, died August 10 at the age of 91.

On September 11, 2001, O’Rourke became one of the “plane people,” stranded in Gander, Newfoundland, on her way back to New York after a trip to her native Ireland. She befriended Gander resident Beulah Cooper, bonding over the fact that both of their sons were firefighters. O’Rourke’s son, Kevin, worked at Rescue Company 2 in Brooklyn and was missing; eventually, she found out that the father of two girls was killed in the North Tower of the World Trade Center. This story of tragedy is weaved throughout Come From Away, which O’Rourke and Cooper frequently attended — often together.

O’Rourke was an active member in the Irish-American Society of Nassau, Suffolk, and Queens for over 50 years, and attended the Parish of Saint Joachim from the time of her arrival in the United States in 1955.

She is predeceased by son Kevin and husband Denis, and is survived by her children and their spouses, as well as several grand- and great-grandchildren.

In keeping with the spirit of Gander — how strangers took in other strangers before planes were allowed to fly again — O’Rourke’s “greatest joy,” according to her obituary, “was making her home a Ceili House, a place where family, friends, and newcomers would gather.”