Jun 26, 2009  |  By: Chris Johnson  | COMMENTS     

Among the nine people who died in this week’s Metro collision was a lesbian who had been with her partner for at least 15 years.

Mandy Doolittle, 59 and a D.C. resident, was among the victims. Her partner was Carol Anne Douglas, a former collective member of “Off Our Backs,” a feminist news journal published since 1970.

Monday’s crash occurred on Metro’s Red Line after one train slammed into another from behind near the Fort Totten Station. It was not immediately clear what triggered the collision, the deadliest in Metro’s history.

Karla Mantilla, another collective member of the news journal, said Doolittle was “an incredibly sweet person, through and through, with unfailingly polite and gracious manners.”

Judith Witherow, another friend, said she never met anyone as “kind and endearing” as Doolittle.

“Anytime you talked to her, whatever you were saying, she would look at you and hold on to your hand like whatever you were saying was the most important thing in the world,” Witherow said.

Doolittle had previously lived in Italy and was planning a return visit with Douglas next month, Witherow said.