What Happened To Annie Cantrell From We Are Marshall, In the movie "We Are Marshall," based on the true story of the 1970 Marshall University football, General, what-happened-to-annie-cantrell-from-we-are-marshall, JPOSE
In the movie "We Are Marshall," based on the true story of the 1970 Marshall University football team tragedy, Annie Cantrell is portrayed as the wife of one of the assistant coaches, Red Dawson. After the plane carrying the team crashes, killing all onboard, including the head coach and many players, Annie and Red struggle to cope with the loss and move on with their lives.
But what happened to Annie Cantrell in real life? It turns out that the character of Annie is a composite of several real-life women who were affected by the tragedy. In the movie, Annie is shown as being pregnant at the time of the crash, which adds to the emotional impact of the story. However, there is no evidence that any of the women who inspired the character of Annie were actually pregnant.
One of the women who inspired the character of Annie was actually the wife of Marshall's head football coach, Jack Lengyel. Sandy Lengyel, like Annie in the movie, struggled to cope with the loss of her husband and the devastation that the crash had wrought on the Marshall community. Another woman who inspired the character was the wife of Red Dawson, Kaye Dawson. Like Annie, Kaye had to deal with the fact that her husband was not on the ill-fated flight, but had instead taken a different plane.
The real-life Annie Cantrell was actually the wife of a Marshall University professor, not a football coach. According to an article in the Herald-Dispatch, Annie Cantrell and her husband, Bob, lost their home in the 1970 Marshall University plane crash. The couple had been living in a rented house on Sixth Avenue in Huntington, West Virginia, which was destroyed when the plane crashed into it. Luckily, the Cantrells were not at home at the time of the crash and were not injured.
Annie Cantrell went on to become a teacher and worked for many years at Huntington High School. She passed away in 2017 at the age of 76. Her obituary does not mention the Marshall University tragedy, but it is clear that she had a long and fulfilling life after the events of 1970.
So while the character of Annie Cantrell in "We Are Marshall" is a fictional composite, the real-life women who inspired her were no less affected by the tragedy that shook their community to its core. Their stories remind us of the resilience and strength of the human spirit in the face of unimaginable loss.