Saxman plays for daughter slain at Sandy Hook

By Ken Boddie and KOIN 6 News staffUpdated: Monday, July 15, 2013, 8:33 pmPublished: Monday, July 15, 2013, 4:56 pm

Jimmy Greene's daughter Ana was one of 26 people slain in the Newtown CT school shooting in Dec. 2012 (July 15, 2013, KOIN 6 News

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — “There’s not a day that goes by where I don’t hear her voice in my head, that I don’t see her face, that I don’t smell her hair, her shampoo.”


Ana Grace Marquez Green was one of 26 people slain in the Newtown, Conn., school shooting in December 2012. (Courtesy to KOIN 6 News)

Saxophonist Jimmy Greene’s daughter, Ana, was one of the 26 people gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, 2012.


A highly regarded performer and teacher, Greene stepped away from music after the tragedy. But now he’s back and performing at Jimmy Mak’s in a fundraiser for the “My Sandy Hook Family Fund.”

“Getting back to writing and playing made me feel more like myself, and it offered me a way with which to express everything that I’ve been going through,” Greene told KOIN 6 News. “We can’t wrap our minds around what’s happened, even still. The shock and the senselessness of it is still very raw.”
He said he’s gratified by the support Newtown has received from people all over the world. The tragedy that took Ana’s life remains a focus for the nation’s ongoing gun control debate.

Jimmy Greene’s daughter Ana was one of 26 people slain in the Newtown, Conn., school massacre in December 2012. (July 15, 2013, KOIN 6 News)

“We all agree that these types of gun incidences can’t continue in this country,” he said. “They’re all too common and that’s a very sad commentary.”
As Jimmy Greene remembers Ana, his music is her music.
“One hundred percent of the monies collected to the fund are distributed 26 equal ways and distributed to the families that lost a loved one that day,” he said.
“We believe with our whole hearts that Ana is in paradise with Jesus at this moment.”

http://www.koin.com/2013/07/15/saxman-plays-for-daughter-slain-at-sandy-hook/