Ten years later, he still mourns his big sister

2013-07-10 17:55:07

She died surrounded by strawberries.

That's how John Haug chooses to remember the incident that took his sister's life. He tries not to think about the car plowing through the farmer's market, the bodies tumbling in all directions.

A man who tried to revive her contacted Haug not long after it happened and, intentionally, painted a serene picture. Haug is grateful for that. His sister fell into boxes of strawberries. That image more easily fits into his consciousness.

Whenever he hears the Beatles' song "Strawberry Fields Forever," it reminds him of the incompleteness of her existence. Haug wishes her story, her work, her positive energy would go on forever.

But, in his mind, it hasn't.

A decade has come and gone, and Haug says too many people have never heard of her.

Lynne Weaver, 47, died on July 16, 2003, when an elderly man, accelerating instead of braking, drove his burgundy Buick LeSabre into a Wednesday afternoon crowd, killing 10 in Santa Monica.

Haug, an English teacher at Orange High School, keeps a journal, a habit he picked up from Lynne, with entries before and after the incident. And he wants to publish a manuscript of what he has written over the years. It's called "10 Years Gone," and shares its name with the bittersweet Led Zeppelin song. He doesn't know how it will be published or who might publish it. He doesn't even know if he'll be finished by July 16.

"I've had 10 years and now wish I could have, not another 10, but another month of uninterrupted writing time," Haug wrote in an email. "I am getting nervous for the day ... remembering that she is gone, in the physical sense, and oh how I could rely on her to answer my calls in times of need."

He doesn't know, precisely, what is pushing him to get her story told. He wants people to know Lynne Weaver, he said, not because she is a victim in an infamous incident, but because she was such an inspiration in his life.


When Haug was born in 1966, his sister named him – John Wayne Haug – after their father's favorite Hollywood star. And, upon his birth, his mother immediately handed John to Lynne and told her, "Here's your baby." Lynne was 11 years old.

Lynne, who for a time attended St. John's Lutheran School in Orange, and Haug had the same father, Dennis Haug. John Haug's mother, Nancy, was Dennis' second wife. Both adults, Dennis and Nancy, were racked with problems, including alcoholism and indifference about parenting. Haug believes that when he was born his mother knew she wouldn't be there for him, so she passed off the responsibility to Lynne.

Haug grew to admire his sister and her hippie spirit. She loved Crosby, Stills and Nash; Pink Floyd; Jackson Browne; Tom Petty; and The Band. She saw the Eagles during their "Hotel California" tour. She met the guys from Devo and was a huge fan of their music. She became an advocate for Native Americans. She loved the movie "Dances with Wolves."

She told her little brother about the power of education. She made him promise that he would go to college.

The Haug family was never solid. Dennis was a truck driver and away a lot. Nancy fought her personal battles. Lynne eventually moved to Los Angeles to live with her mother.

Then, in 1974, John's mother finally left for good.

"One day I woke up and my mother was gone," John said.

Haug found himself crashing at his neighbor's house, and they became something of a surrogate family to him.

Almost immediately after Nancy left, Lynne, then a freshman at Cal State Northridge, realized her brother needed help.

So she dropped out of college.

She got a job working as a checker at Ralphs supermarket. So she could contribute financially to Haug's upbringing.

She would drive to Orange on the weekends. When she was 19, she began buying John school clothes. She took him to the dentist. She bought train tickets and they took Amtrak to SeaWorld. They stayed with hippie friends who had a lot of beads hanging in their apartment, Haug remembers.

Haug gets emotional when he talks about Lynne's decision to drop out of college.

"If she hadn't done that, I would have never felt important or significant," Haug said. "She sacrificed for me. She didn't have to. It wasn't her responsibility."


When Lynne got a job at Michael's Restaurant in Santa Monica, she began to meet the rich and famous.

Her boyfriend at the time introduced her to Robby Weaver, a television actor who also played in a band. Robby is the son of television actor Dennis Weaver, who starred in "Gunsmoke" and "McCloud."

Once, Lynne went to see Robby Weaver's band. He played and sang the Donovan song "Colors," dedicating his performance to Lynne. The previous boyfriend faded away, and she was hooked on Robby.

They married and had a daughter, Jennifer.

Robby owned a recording studio, and Lynne loved working behind the scenes with musicians. Once, she hired Haug to carry boxes of champagne at a party for Neil Diamond.

She worked as a movie and video game producer. She collected shoes to donate to children on a Lakota Sioux reservation. She worked for Love Is Feeding Everyone (LIFE) which gave free meals to the needy in Southern California. She worked for the Planetary Coral Reef Foundation, Women of Los Angeles and Women in Film. She was a co-producer on Dennis Weaver's documentary "Drive to Survive" about a cross-country caravan in vehicles that used nonpetroleum fuel.

In his manuscript, Haug has a quote from actor and environmental activist Ed Begley Jr.: "Lynne Weaver was a friend and fellow warrior in the green revolution starting decades ago. Her tireless energy and incredible wisdom in promoting sustainability are sorely missed to this day. I shall never forget her."

While his sister was a thriving philanthropist, Haug was getting his degree from Cal State Fullerton, just like he promised.

He got degrees in photojournalism and anthropology. Then, Lynne and Robby bought him a Eurail pass, and he visited the Berlin Wall and the concentration camp at Dachau.

Haug worked at Togo's in Orange making sandwiches before becoming a substitute then, in 2002, a full-time teacher.


In the summer of 2003, Lynne Weaver was working as the chief operating officer for After-School All-Stars, a program founded by actor and then-aspiring-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. She had flown to Washington, D.C., to participate in a national conference on education.

Her picture was taken on the steps of the U.S. Capitol with Secretary of Education Rod Paige, an image that Haug said represented how high she had flown in her career. A college dropout was being recognized as a national leader, Haug said.

Haug, himself, had reached the top of his game. He was in his second year as an English teacher at Orange High (he also became the yearbook adviser). He's that enthusiastic teacher that students love. Rock 'n' roll pictures are taped to the walls of his classroom. He teaches with emotion and enthusiasm.

Haug called Lynne on Sunday, July 13, 2003.

"Arnold is going to ask you to be his campaign manager," Haug predicted. "Lynne told me, 'I can't. I don't have a college degree.'"

On Wednesday, July 16, Lynne had left the After-School All-Stars office in Santa Monica to pick up some fresh peaches from the farmer's market.

Haug was teaching a class at National University. Some of his students told him about the terrible incident in which an elderly man had plowed his car through pedestrians in Santa Monica. Haug knew Lynne worked there – but what were the odds she could be connected?

When he got home at 10 p.m., Haug's wife, Ramona, was standing on the lawn with her cellphone.

It was Robby Weaver.

"There was an accident," Weaver said. "Lynne didn't make it."

Haug remembers repeating no, no, no. Over and over again. He paced around his house aimlessly.

"It's been hard on my dad," said Jenevieve, John's 15-year-old daughter. "He's slowly learned to deal with it. There are things he wishes he could share with her. She was the first person he would go to with anything."

Dennis Weaver said at the time, "Our family's loss is the world's loss."


If you mention the name "George Russell Weller," the man who was convicted on 10 counts of vehicular manslaughter, John Haug will talk to you about forgiveness. Because of his age and frail condition, Weller was sentenced to five years' probation, did no jail time and died in 2010 at age 94. Haug announced his feelings about Weller in the courtroom at the sentencing.

"I have no other choice but to forgive him," Haug said. "God wants us to forgive."

But there is a name Haug will not speak. His anger about what happened to his sister went in a different direction, away from the man who killed her. In Haug's mind, there is a reason Lynne Weaver's life story did not get the attention it deserved.

Kobe Bryant.

In the third week of July in 2003, newspaper headlines and television news programs were dominated by the coverage of Kobe Bryant's rape case. Kobe eventually admitted having an extramarital affair, but denied the rape allegations. Bryant's accuser refused to testify against him and the criminal case was dropped. After the accuser filed a civil complaint, Bryant agreed to pay a settlement without admitting wrongdoing.

"That person did something despicable, and I will always carry that anger," Haug said. "Compare his life to her life. Hers meant so much more. I want her spirit to stay alive."


On May 22 of this year, around dusk, Jenevieve Haug was in the passenger seat of a car sitting at a stop sign on Cambridge Street in Orange.

An elderly driver in another car plowed into the car Jenevieve was in. Jenevieve was not seriously hurt.

"She didn't even try to stop," Jenevieve said. "There were no brake marks."

John Haug got a phone call at school.

"Thank goodness nothing happened this time," Haug said.

Then he thought of his sister.

It made him think of strawberries.


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