Geologist, wife from US were on Air France plane

[June 03, 2009]  NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The two Americans on board an Air France plane that crashed in the Atlantic Ocean were a geologist and his wife headed to Europe for work and vacation, a spokesman for his employer said Tuesday.

Michael Harris, who turned 60 last month, worked in Rio de Janeiro for Oklahoma City-based Devon Energy Corp., company spokesman Chip Minty said. Harris had planned to attend seminars in Barcelona, Spain. "After that, they had five days on R&R in Paris," Minty said.

The airliner disappeared late Sunday en route from Brazil to Paris with 228 people on board. Brazilian military pilots searching for the plane spotted floating debris Tuesday but no signs of life.

Anne Harris, 54, was a physical therapist who put herself through school while a single mother, her sister, Mary Miley, told The Advertiser newspaper in Lafayette, La., her hometown.

"They were both gregarious, caring, patient, kind, fun-loving individuals," Miley said. "My only comfort is that they died together."

Miley said the couple lived in Lafayette until 2004. They had been married for 16 years, and Anne Harris' son, a pilot with Continental, lives in their house in the Spring area outside Houston. A woman at that home declined to be interviewed by The Associated Press.

Molly Maguire-Stefano, an expatriate who lived in the same building with the Harrises in Rio, said late Tuesday that the couple would be sorely missed.

"It's just horrible," she said. "There's still a lot of tears and shock. It's made us think twice about how you say goodbye to your friends. Less than 24 hours before this happened I was two-stepping with Mike and now the whole world's changed."

Maguire-Stefano said the Harrises and her family had just spent the whole day together on Saturday working, dancing and having fun at a picnic sponsored by the American Society, a social club for English-speakers in Brazil.

"They're originally from Louisiana and they're just a lot of fun," Maguire-Stefano said. "I mean for Mike's 60th birthday he got a surf board from Anne. They definitely lived life to the fullest. You really have to have a good sense of humor to live here and Anne fit right in."

Minty said Michael Harris had started with Devon as a Houston-based contractor in 2004 and became a full-time employee there in 2006. He moved from Devon's Houston office to Rio de Janeiro in July.

Michael Harris graduated from Clemson University in South Carolina in 1972 with a bachelor's degree in geology, school spokeswoman Angela Nixon said.

He was a native of Greenville, S.C., said his sister, Barbara Harris Sorkin. "I'm going to miss him terribly," she told The Greenville News.

[Associated Press; By JANET McCONNAUGHEY]

Associated Press Writer Bruce Smith in Charleston, S.C., contributed to this report.

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