TUCSON, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- A U.S. flag from the World Trade Center will be displayed Thursday at the funeral of a girl killed in the Tucson shooting rampage, a church official said.
The 20-by-30-foot flag, dubbed the National 9/11 Flag, is the largest American flag to survive the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the twin towers.
Nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green -- one of six people killed in Saturday's shooting spree that also injured U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and 13 others -- was born Sept. 11, 2001, and was proud of it because she said it lent a sense of hope to that day, her mother said.
The flag, 40 percent of which was burned away in the tower collapse, was stitched back together several years ago, the flag's custodian, the New York Says Thank You Foundation, says on its Web site.
The foundation's Jimmy Sands, a New York City firefighter, brought the 50-pound flag, folded the traditional 13 times into a triangle, to Tucson in a plastic case, The Arizona Republic reported.
The family is "delighted" the flag will be displayed at the service, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church parish administrator Theresa Bier, 74, told the newspaper.
U.S. President Barack Obama praised Green at a University of Arizona memorial service Wednesday night and said he wanted Americans "to live up to her expectations".
"I want our democracy to be as good as she imagined it," he said. UPI
