Oklahoma City School students plan to help family with loss of astronaut

<br>(Oklahoma City-AP) -- Students at Longfellow Elementary School are planning to write letters and cards to the grandniece of one of the seven astronauts killed Saturday in the explosion of the space

Sunday, February 2nd 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(Oklahoma City-AP) -- Students at Longfellow Elementary School are planning to write letters and cards to the grandniece of one of the seven astronauts killed Saturday in the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia.

Longfellow Elementary School 4th grader Dee Dee Durham traveled to Florida to watch her great uncle Michael Anderson take off in the space shuttle Columbia.

A bulletin board at the school highlights Anderson's career and includes pictures from Dee Dee's trip to Florida. Students had written letters to Anderson.

Educators say Durham hoped Anderson would speak at the school one day.

Durham lives in Oklahoma City with her grandmother, who is Anderson's sister. The family said they would travel to Houston to be with Anderson's wife and children.