LAKEPORT, Calif. — Friends from around the world joined townspeople here Saturday to mourn the loss of a young California woman whose campaign to document civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan helped spur Congress to provide millions of dollars in relief for victims of American military actions.
"Marla Ruzicka demonstrated that an individual can make a profound difference in the world," said Bobby Muller, chairman of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday April 28, 2005 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 35 words Type of Material: Correction
Activist's funeral -- An article in Sunday's California section about the funeral for activist Marla Ruzicka gave the incorrect website address of her organization, the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict. The address is www.civicworldwide.org.
He was one of a parade of speakers that included U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), actor Sean Penn, war correspondents and childhood friends who praised the irrepressible humanitarian activist who grew up in this Northern California town about 90 miles north of San Francisco.
"She was a force of nature somewhere between lightning and gravity," recalled tearful BBC reporter Quill Lawrence, a friend from Iraq. "Between Mother Teresa and Buffy the Vampire Killer."
Twenty-eight-year-old Ruzicka -- a hyperkinetic, Valley-talking, 5-foot-3 former high school basketball star with a lifelong compassion for the downtrodden -- was killed along with an Iraqi co-worker April 16 when a suicide bomber struck their unprotected car on the dangerous road to the Baghdad airport.
A longtime activist, Ruzicka two years ago founded the nonprofit Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict. Much of her work required traveling unarmed to dangerous areas of Iraq to interview bereaved families.
Sometimes in-line skating between appointments in Washington, Ruzicka charmed crusty politicians, diplomats and even senior military officers with her energy, blithe spirit and compassion for the victims of war. Her efforts, carried in Congress by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), resulted in an unprecedented $30 million in aid to victims.
This week, the Senate voted to name the program the "Marla Ruzicka Iraq War Victims' Fund." Speaking from the altar Saturday, Boxer vowed: "This program will never die. It will live on in Marla's name."
As much as Ruzicka's death meant to the international community and in the corridors of power in Washington, the impact was pronounced here in this town of about 5,000 that is the seat of Lake County.
More than 800 mourners gathered under misty skies at the small St. Mary Immaculate Church, on the west shore of Clear Lake, for a funeral Mass said by parish priest Father Ted Oswald.
