Seeds of Hope for Hostages’ Families : Tree Planting Honors 5 Held

In a subdued but poignant display of emotion, the families of the American hostages being held in Lebanon planted trees in their relatives’ honor Friday at a Westminster park.

The families also paid tribute to Peter Kilburn, the American who was slain in Beirut last week in retaliation for the U.S. bombing of Libya.

The Rev. Benjamin Weir, one of the seven Americans kidnaped in Beirut in the past two years and the only one who has been released, remembered his friend and fellow hostage as “a quiet, gentle person under the trees . . . always with a ready smile.”

‘Deeply Caring Person’

“His tone and focus were always outward. He was a deeply caring person. We miss Peter and we miss the other hostages,” Weir said of Kilburn, who will be buried in San Francisco on Tuesday.

Weir, who was liberated last October, also asked the crowd to strive for “commitment to peace-making in our time.”

Kilburn’s niece, Patty Little, planted the tree in his honor. She also planted a cross with her uncle’s picture at the foot of the tree. As television and still cameras followed her movements, she quickly walked away and fell, sobbing, into the arms of her husband, Lance.

Later, Little said she had not expected the throngs of news media representatives and the crowd of about 500 people.

“It’s a lot harder for me today, especially with the funeral coming up on Tuesday,” she said after retiring to a limousine that carried the families to Liberty Park.

“So much has happened the last few days that I have not had much time to grieve,” she said. “Today was very hard.”

The bodies of Kilburn, 62, and two British journalists were discovered a week ago in Beirut. This week, British hostage Alec Collett was reported to be the man hanged by a Muslim extremist group, which released a videotape of the incident.

Four other Americans are being held together in Beirut by another Muslim group, Islamic Jihad. They are David P. Jacobsen of Huntington Beach, the director of the American University Hospital in Beirut; Father Lawrence Jenco, a Roman Catholic priest; Thomas Sutherland, the dean of the university’s agriculture school; and Terry A. Anderson, a correspondent for the Associated Press.

One other American, diplomat William Buckley, is also missing in Lebanon.

The families came to Orange County because of the Hy-Lond Convalescent Home in Westminster. The home’s residents “adopted” the hostages last summer and have held continual prayer sessions to ask for their safe return.

For Joan Sutherland of Manhattan Beach, daughter of Thomas Sutherland, the ceremony had special significance. Sutherland, 21, has lived in California but a few months while her mother has remained in Beirut since her husband’s abduction last June 9.

‘Hope It’s Soon’

“I’m here by myself and it’s good to be among people who really care,” Sutherland said, drying tears after she had planted the tree in her father’s honor.

Despite the aggravation in the Middle East the past two weeks, Sutherland said she thought her father “is going to come home. I just hope it’s soon.”

Tom Anderson planted the tree in honor of his cousin, Terry. The tree for Jenco was planted by his brother, Joe Jenco, and his sisters, Sue Franceschini and May Mihelich, all of Joliet, Ill.

All expressed confidence that the remaining hostages would ultimately reach home unharmed.

“The next time I see you is when Terry is home,” Tom Anderson told an acquaintance after the ceremony.

Mihelich said: “You can’t condone and you can’t agree with what’s happened. But we have to hope for the best.”

Critical of Reagan

Hostage Jacobsen’s son Eric, of Huntington Beach, however, again reiterated his criticism of the bombing of Libya and of President Reagan for “putting the hostages in a position of No. 2 concern” by calling for the air strikes.

Eric Jacobsen said Friday’s ceremony helped “bolster hope and prayer” for the hostages’ safe release, but he added that the Americans are still very much in danger of dying.

“I am still equally frightened and upset, and concerned about the increasing danger to my father and the other hostages,” said Jacobsen, who was accompanied at the ceremony by his sister, Diane.