Every time Michael Parry drives through downtown Clarks Summit, he says hello to a long-lost friend.
A plaque at the convergence of State and Depot streets is dedicated to Laura Lee DeFazio Morabito, a Clarks Summit native killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“I always glance over quickly and just say hello to my buddy as I pass,” he said.
Mike Parry, friend of Laura Lee DeFazio Morabito who died on 9/11, poses for a photograph on State St. near the borough’s clock tower Friday, March 6, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
As borough officials plan to dismantle the plaque and the clock tower behind it almost 25 years after the attacks, Morabito’s family and friends hope it will remain in a prominent location in the borough.
Borough officials decided to take down the clock tower because of its age and after determining it can’t be repaired because it is located on private property. They plan to move the plaque to another borough property and have discussed Veterans’ Memorial Park at State Street and Clark Avenue as an option.
Morabito, a 1984 graduate of Abington Heights High School, was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 11 when terrorists crashed the airliner into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York. She was 34. At the time, Morabito lived in Framingham, Massachusetts, and was a corporate sales manager for Qantas Airlines.
Parry, who now lives in Newton Twp., grew up in the same neighborhood as Morabito and graduated from Abington Heights in the same year. He feels the park would not be an appropriate location for the plaque, dedicated in 2007, because Morabito wasn’t a veteran.
“I didn’t feel it was right with Laura not being a veteran to be added in with the veterans because that’s their place,” Parry said. “It pays honor to our hometown girl that we all lost in the terrorist attacks on 9/11.”
South Abington Twp. resident Dave Abel, a close friend of Morabito and her family, said the plaque gets a lot of foot traffic, especially during events downtown like the Clarks Summit Festival of Ice. Veterans’ Memorial Park, he added, does not get the same volume of people.
“I’m just more concerned about making sure that plaque stays center city, so to speak, on Main Street, so to speak, and not moved off on some beaten path where no one’s going to see it,” Abel said. “I’d rather it stay there, especially in this year.”
Jeff DeFazio poses with his sister, Laura DeFazio Morabito at their parents’ home on Lake Kewanee in the early 1990s. Morabito, a Clarks Summit native, was killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. A plaque in her memory sits on the corner of State and Depot streets in the borough’s downtown. (Photo courtesy of Jeff DeFazio)
Members of the Abington Heights High School class of 1984 gather for a wreath laying ceremony for the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in front of a plaque dedicated to their classmate, Laura Lee DeFazio Morabito. Pictured from left, are, Mike Parry, Amy Jenkins Yarns, Nora McGowin Suraci, Larry DeFazio, Laura’s father, Lisa Thompson Dorunda and Sandy Hoban Davidock. (Photo courtesy of Mike Parry)
A wreath sits at the base of a plaque dedicated to Clarks Summit native Laura Lee DeFazio Morabito, who died in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks for the 20th anniversary of the attacks. (Photo courtesy of Mike Parry)
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Jeff DeFazio poses with his sister, Laura DeFazio Morabito at their parents’ home on Lake Kewanee in the early 1990s. Morabito, a Clarks Summit native, was killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. A plaque in her memory sits on the corner of State and Depot streets in the borough’s downtown. (Photo courtesy of Jeff DeFazio)
Parry, who donated money to put up the plaque, proposes moving it to the front of the Municipal Building, allowing it to remain in the center of the borough.
With this year marking the 25th anniversary of the attacks, Parry hopes the borough won’t remove the plaque from its current location until after Sept. 11. Abel said officials should take their time if they move it.
Morabito’s older brother, Jeff DeFazio, said he and his younger brother, Craig DeFazio,understand that the plaque is on private property and are OK with it being moved to a respectable location. He thinks the community would want it at another permanent site.
“If it moved to a location that was more enduring that wouldn’t cause it to be subject to another move, I think we would honor that,” he said. “We’d be OK with it.”
Borough Manager Jennifer Basalyga said this week officials have not made a decision about the plaque. Solicitor Andrew Krowiak spoke with Jack Decker, who owns the property on which the clock tower and plaque sit, and said at this week’s council meeting he is open to negotiating with the borough on an easement for the property, with the caveat that the borough reduce his sewer bill.
“If an agreement for an easement is mutually agreed upon, council would need a vote to accept,” she said. “If that comes to fruition, discussions would continue regarding the clock tower, 9/11 memorial and the electric panel on that property.”
Decker said this week what happens with the plaque and the clock tower is up to the borough.
Basalyga said if the plaque is removed, it will be done so respectfully and to a borough property. Basalyga has been in touch with Craig DeFazio on all developments with the plaque.
DeFazio, who grew up in the borough and now lives in Manasota Key, Florida, said the plaque represents the moment in time and the loss that his family, the community and the country experienced on that day in 2001.
“It’s not just about the loss of her, but I think it’s also the event itself and what everybody went through, the grieving that everybody went through and how something like that in New York comes right down to our small community in Clarks Summit,” DeFazio said.
It also represents how the community came together in the wake of the tragedy, he said. With the 25th anniversary approaching, DeFazio said the community should decide how they want to remember the attacks.
“We have a memory of the loss of something like this, not just for the nation, but how it affected us as a community, but also reflect how the community rose around its own to help,” he said.
Abel said 25 years after the attacks, Morabito and everyone who died that day should be remembered for the lives they lived. DeFazio said his sister had a wonderful career at Qantas; she traveled around the world, and in 2000 accompanied the executive staff of General Electric to the Summer Olympics in Sydney.
Abel and Parry recalled Morabito as someone who lit up a room and was athletic. Abel remembered playing golf with Morabito and Craig DeFazio at Stone Hedge Golf Course in Wyoming County a month before the attacks.
DeFazio said the plaque represents the best of the community, which came together in the wake of the attacks.
“It reflects more than just Laura. It reflects the zeitgeist of what took place, what that community did and was capable of doing and the impact that it has,” he said. “It’s way bigger than just Laura in and of itself.”