Here is the news article I wrote about the memorial. The article was published in the Tuesday, March 4, 1997 issue of the Fort Pierce Tribune. -------------- by Steven Otte

Throughout the two-hour memorial service, people filtered in and out, some observing in silence, others taking their turn to talk about how much the murdered woman had meant to them. The deceased, an apparent victim of domestic violence, was remembered in an opening prayer as "happy and always smiling" by David Munn, who organized the memorial.

At one point, 49 people were present to pay respects to Nadine Sherrod of Ocala _ a woman most of the mourners had never met in person. For this memorial was held in cyberspace, where Sherrod was known to friends across the country by her Internet nickname, Seaweed.

The idea for the online memorial session "just came from the heart," said Munn, a Kalamazoo, Michigan resident who goes by the nicknames Odo or Money while on the Internet. "I just thought she deserved it."

Sherrod, 42, a school bus driver, was shot at point-blank range with a large-caliber handgun sometime after 8 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Marion County Sheriff's Office. Johnny Lee Sherrod, 43, her husband of 25 years, was arrested and charged with her murder. The couple had separated in December, and neighbors said that the victim had a restraining order against him.

Ms. Sherrod's hobby was chatting on the Internet, using software that lets users join "channels" relating to various interests and see what others in the channel are typing in real-time. Though many people think of the Internet as an anonymous, impersonal medium, the people who came to mourn Thursday night were not surprised at the way the online community pulled together.

"I can't stop crying, but it makes me feel good that so many people came to say goodbye," said Fran Bushnell, a North Carolina resident who knew Sherrod via the Internet for nearly a year. "We can't all be there in real life, but to us this is real. I loved her like a sister. She was more than words on a screen to me."

Regular participants of the real-time chat channels on the Internet tend to settle on a "home channel" and get to know the other regulars as friends, often planning real-life meetings to get to know the faces behind the odd nicknames. Sherrod had planned to meet Bushnell and other Internet friends at a gathering in April, said Shannon Darnell of Elizabethtown, Kentucky. "She was supposed to two-step with Money (Munn)," Darnell said.

Darnell said people who are not familiar with the culture of Internet Relay Chat would probably be surprised at way that community came together after hearing the tragedy, but she was not. "We all loved Seaweed (Sherrod), and we'll miss her just like we had coffee with her every day," she said. Barbara from Ashland, Kentucky, who did not wish to give her last name, said that although she was not able to come to Florida to attend a real-life memorial, participating in the online memorial helped her and others through their grieving process in the same way.

"It gave me a chance to say goodbye to a dear friend, or as she called me, her twin," said Barbara, who also had planned to meet Sherrod at the Kentucky gathering. "It made me feel like we made closure... It also, I think, helped them (the online participants) feel like they were a part of it all, like when in the outside world someone dies, you bring a cake or say a few words. Well, they got to do that tonight."

Bushnell and others were online waiting with others to chat with Sherrod the night she was killed. Within hours of the shooting, word had reached her friends on the Internet, who phoned Sherrod's neighbors and Marion County law enforcement officials, and gathered in a chat channel to share what they had heard.

The next morning, an article posted in the World Wide Web version of /{The Ocala Star-Banner/} confirmed it. Munn suggested the online memorial service, which was scheduled for the next night to allow time for her friends to be notified.

On Thursday night, Munn formed a channel bearing Sherrod's Internet nickname. The topic, which is displayed at the top of the screen of anyone joining the channel, was set to read, "Seaweed... our thoughts are of you... you touched our lives... we are better for having known you." One by one, people filtered in, nicknames like PigyPigy, Godfather, Brits, Lizarde and Ashly2 filling the channel. Most added carat to the end of their nicknames, an upward-pointing arrow, to honor Sherrod. They greeted each other as usual, talking about mundane issues such as which Internet servers would allow everyone to see what was typed in the channel with the least delay.

Then, Munn asked for silence for an opening prayer. When he was finished, twenty-six people typed "amen."

Steven Otte, who goes by the Internet Relay Chat nickname FLGator_, writes about the Internet for the Tribune. Readers may contact him via E-mail at the Internet address flagator@gate.net.}