The Lynn Angell Age Dilemma

Here's an interesting picture of Lynn Angell, purportedly from Argyll Academy and Campbell Hall school's 1981 yearbook. This dates back to the period when Lynn was working full-time in order to support David's screen-writing ambitions, as part of the couple's five-year plan to break into Hollywood.

And here's an enlarged version, minus the text:

Small as it is, I find the picture interesting for three main reasons:

1. The picture has suddenly materialised at this particular time
2. This younger Lynn Angell clearly resembles some of the older versions we've already seen (see below)
3. Lynn's apparent youthfulness raises interesting questions about her actual age and the official timeline

As regards my first point, this image appears on Flickr and the date is given as 26th January 2010. However, I have only recently (i.e. yesterday) stumbled across this image, despite conducting numerous image searches on numerous search engines over a five month period. Has Google taken a full year to index this particular image? Is this plausible?

Second, when we compare this image with some of the other pictures of Lynn Angell we can see a clear resemblance; even the hairstyle is the same, although the style has a suitably wavy 1980s feel to it. In fact, it seems to me that Lynn displays a level of satisfaction with her self-image that, in my view, is uncommon amongst members of the fairer sex, in the sense that she never once changes the basic style, colour or length of her hair. It would be interesting to get some feedback from a female reader on this particular issue. In addition to the below montage, it's also worth comparing this image with some of the images that appear in one of my previous posts.

Finally, how old does Lynn look in this picture? The official biography tells us that Lynn was born 11th August 1949, which would make her 31 going on 32 at the time this picture was taken. Yet my first thought on viewing this image was that it showed Lynn in her early 20s, perhaps even as a high school senior. This matters because the official biography tells us that Lynn was 52 at the time of her alleged death, whereas a sizeable number of third party memorial and tribute sites would have us believe that she was several years younger and state her age as 45. Searching Google using "Lynn Angell, 45" or "Lynn Angel" +45 as the search criteria returns a large number of results, although www.9-11heroes.us is probably the most high profile example.

Why does this matter? Well, according to the official biography Lynn met a 'recently graduated' David Angell on Cape Cod 'one summer', presumably the summer of 1969. The couple courted and married in August 1971. This is all well and good if Lynn was born in 1949, but more than a little problematic if she was born in 1956! Walking through the timeline, we're told that David served in the army from 1969 to 1972 and was stationed at the Pentagon, whereas Lynn was still living in Alabama and did not graduate from Auburn University until 1971, the year of their marriage. Even if Lynn was indeed born in 1949, how on earth did the couple manage to keep their relationship going under these circumstances? Did David fly back and forth between Virginia and Alabama every weekend? Is this plausible?

Interestingly, Lynn Angell does get a mention on Auburn University's website, and the article in question confirms that she graduated in 1971. However, it's important to note that this single reference to Lynn Angell is dated 12th September 2001, with the subject matter being her 'death' as a passenger on flight 11 the day before. So, while most people were still reeling from the events of the day before, a certain David M. Granger of Auburn University was morbidly scouring the newspapers and checking whether any Auburn alumni were among the dead? Again, we're obliged to ask whether this is remotely plausible given the time available to the author, and especially given the confusion and misinformation surrounding the flight 11 passenger manifests?

As per usual, we're left with more questions than answers. Lynn certainly looks a lot younger than David in all the photos in which they appear 'together', although the very evident anomalies in these images raise questions as to whether one or the other (or both) has been 'Photoshopped' into them. Consequently, it's anyone's guess as to whether this 1981 picture represents the real Lynn Angell.