Born and reared on the Lower East Side, Celeste Victoria was one of five children of immigrant parents from St. Thomas and Puerto Rico.

She grew tall, slim and beautiful and, as a young woman trying to find her way, was drawn into the world of fashion. She did some modeling for a time but soon ventured into a career as a paralegal, working mainly in the Manhattan courts.

Still discovering her place, Celeste eventually enrolled at New York University to study communications. At NYU, she believed she had found her calling. She joined the New York Association of Black Journalists to help further herself as a journalist. Early on, she signed up her then pre-teen daughter, Jasmine, for NYABJ’s annual high school journalism workshop and attended the weekly sessions, too. Celeste completed that program and then began taking on an array of tasks as an NYABJ volunteer, whether licking stamps for monthly mailings or getting glammed up and parking her smiling face at the entrance to an annual NYABJ dinner.

She also was a mainstay of NYABJ’s Media Watch Committee, helping to write scripts, secure guests and roll cameras for its monthly program on cable television. In an organization so often short of volunteers with real volunteer spirit, Celeste was rock-steady.

“She was a ray of sunshine,” says Yanick Rice-Lamb, a former NYABJ president now teaching journalism at Howard University.

Rice-Lamb said Victoria became an NYABJ member at a time when the chapter was experiencing some difficulties, including a major shake-up in its leadership.

“Celeste was instrumental in turning the organization around,” Rice-Lamb says. “People rolled up their sleeves to try to rebuild things and she was one of them. When people were pessimistic, Celeste was always being positive.”

Robin Stone, another past president, a freelance journalist and author, says she is honored to have known Celeste and was awed by the closeness of Celeste’s relationship with her daughter, now 20 and attending Duke University on full scholarship.

“It was just so wonderful to see a mother imparting her wisdom, but she was also exposing (Jasmine) to so many smart, pro-active people,” Stone said. “She was a treasure, a real treasure to the organization.”

She was a terrific behind-the-scenes person. Celeste did not wait to be asked to do a task but jumped right in wherever a need appeared.

“This is corny, but if ever there was a person that had a can-do attitude, that was Celeste,” Stone said.

And Celeste found she loved this new business she had entered. She wondered how TV and news shows were made and found her way to the Manhattan Neighborhood Network. Within a couple of years, she was writing, producing and reporting. Dawn Torres-Brown remembers how her sister glowed in front of that camera.

“Celeste loved the spotlight,” she says. “She could walk in a room and literally light up the place.”

On Sept. 11, 2001, Celeste was organizing a breakfast meeting for Risk Waters Group (Ed. now known as IncisiveMedia), where she worked in marketing, at the Windows of the World, the once famed restaurant at the top of Tower One of the World Trade Center. She was among those who died.

“Not a day goes by that we don’t talk about her or think about her,” Torres-Brown said.

The family held a memorial service for Celeste on Nov. 4, 2001. Her remains were discovered months later and Celeste was buried on Feb. 21, which would have been her 42nd birthday.

Carlise Cornelius is a past Chapter Service award winner and was one of Celeste’s best friends. She misses Celeste, Cornelius said, “her effervescence, her love of life, and of course, her beautiful smile.”

- source “Ikimulisa Sockwell-Mason - NYABJ”

NYABJ honors Celeste’s memory through a scholarship, which will be awarded to Jasmine to assist with college costs. Please send tax-deductible contributions payable to “NYABJ scholarship.” Write “Jasmine Victoria” in the memo portion of the check.

Send to:

Jasmine Victoria Scholarship
New York Association of Black Journalists
Box 2446
Rockefeller Center
New York, NY 10185

Visit 2,996 to see tributes to the other victims.

1. That is a very cool thing you guys are doing. Thanks for remembering and for putting a face and name with a number.

   God Bless and Protect America

   Comment by Sandy — 8:21 am
   

2. Very nice rememberance and tribute.
   God Bless the souls lost on 9/11.
   God Bless you for taking the time to do this.
   God Bless our brave protectors and defenders.

   Comment by Nita Rene — 8:44 am
   

3. Thanks, Jason, for taking the time to remember Celeste. We cannot make 911 personal enough. People must remember that we lost fellow human beings, not just buildings and airplanes. They must also remember that the enemy that murdered those people still have the same hatred and resolve. We must defeat islamofascism or 2996 innocent people plus our fallen military heroes have died for naught.

   Comment by Old Soldier — 11:18 am
   

4. I worked with Celeste for three years at Manhattan Neighborhood Network. We trained together and got the new station up and running, working a brutal 11 hour shift on Saturdays where we were the only employees in the building. Celeste was a vibrant, beautiful woman, funny and energetic. We had arguments as all co-workers must, but mostly I only have great memories of her. That period of my life was an exceptionally concentrated one for my growth and she was a big character in that play. I loved watching her with her daughter, one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. She was such a great mother–I’ve really never seen anything like it. I wasn’t in NYC on 9/11, I was actually in my father’s homeland in Palestine when it happpened and I didn’t find out about it until I came back the next year in January. I regret that I wasn’t able to go to the funeral and pay my respects, to make her life and death real, to mourn, to share her life with the people who cared about her. For lack of a better term, its a screwed up world. Why Celeste had to be at the Towers that day is beyond me; she deserved several decades more of life, to see her beautiful daughter become a woman, and to come into her full as a professional and a human being. I don’t think there’s a day that goes by that I don’t think of Celeste and I often see people on the street that I think might be her. My condolensces to the family and especially to Jasmine who I hope is finding her dreams coming true.

   Comment by Jaime Yassin — 12:28 pm
   

5. Thank you, Jaime, for that personal addition to this post.

   Comment by Texas Rainmaker — 5:22 pm
   

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