These Are the Newtown Victims

The names of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings were released yesterday, and glimpses into their lives, snapshots, and tributes are emerging this morning. Dad Robbie Parker last night remembered 6-year-old Emilie, reports the LA Times, the first parent to speak publicly of his lost child. "All those who had the pleasure to meet her would agree that this world has been a better place because she has been in it," he said tearfully. To Adam Lanza's family, he said: "I want you to know that our family and our love and our support goes out to you as well." And he recounted Friday morning, when Emilie said good morning and told him she loved him. I gave her a kiss,” Parker said, “and I was out the door.” A look at some of the other victims, via the AP:

• Charlotte Bacon, 6: After much begging, Charlotte's mom let her wear a new pink dress and boots to school. It was the last outfit the redheaded girl would ever pick out. "She was going to go some places in this world," says her uncle.
• Olivia Engel, 6: Olivia was looking forward to coming home Friday, to make a gingerbread house. "She loved attention," says a family friend. "She had perfect manners. She was the teacher's pet, the line leader. Her only crime is being a wiggly, smiley 6-year-old."

• Dawn Hochsprung, 47: "I don't think you could find a more positive place to bring students to every day," the principal said in 2010. As the AP writes, "When the unthinkable came, she was ready to defend." She died lunging at Lanza.
• Madeleine Hsu, 6. A doctor at Madeleine's house said her family had no comment, adding, "This is the darkest thing I've ever walked into."
• Catherine Hubbard, 6. "We are greatly saddened by the loss of our beautiful daughter, Catherine Violet," said her parents in a statement that thanked emergency responders.
• Chase Kowalski, 7. Chase was outside all the time, and had recently won a mini-triathlon, says a neighbor. "You couldn't think of a better child."
• Jesse Lewis, 6. "He was always friendly; he always liked to talk," says the owner of the deli where Jesse ate his favorite sausage, egg, and cheese with hot chocolate on Friday morning.
• Ana Marquez-Greene, 6. Video of Ana singing "Come, Thou Almighty King" is going viral. It's in the gallery or here. "As much as she's needed here and missed by her mother, brother and me, Ana beat us all to paradise," wrote dad Jimmy Greene on Facebook.
• James Mattioli, 6. "It's a terrible tragedy, and we're a tight community," says the mayor of the upstate New York town where James' mom grew up. "Everybody will be there for them, and our thoughts and prayers are there for them."
• Anne Marie Murphy, 52. "You don't expect your daughter to be murdered," her father said, after he and her mother waited in vain for hours for news of their daughter. Murphy, a teacher described as a "happy soul," died shielding her students. "It happens on TV. It happens elsewhere."
• Noah Pozner, 6. Noah's parents moved him and sisters from New York "for safety and education," an uncle says. He called Noah, the youngest victim, "extremely mature. When I was his age, I was not like him." He will be buried today.
• Lauren Gabrielle Rousseau, 30. "Lauren wanted to be a teacher from before she even went to kindergarten," said her mom in a statement. After years of substitute teaching, she finally got that call this year. "It was the best year of her life."
• Mary Sherlach, 56. Sherlach died rushing Lanza with principal Dawn Hochsprung. "Mary felt like she was doing God's work," said her son-in-law, "working with the children."
• Victoria Soto, 27. "She beams in snapshots," notes the AP, and she was killed after making sure her first-graders were safe. "She put those children first. That's all she ever talked about," says a friend. "You have a teacher who cared more about her students than herself," says the mayor of Soto's hometown.

(More Newtown, Connecticut stories.)