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Sisters recalled as girls who were going to change world

By Julie Poppen, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published December 12, 2007 at 12:30 a.m.

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Rachel Works, left, and Stephanie Works were both home schooled and both were deeply religious. Their family is well-known in Denver.

Rachel Works, left, and Stephanie Works were both home schooled and both were deeply religious. Their family is well-known in Denver.

Stephanie Works

Stephanie Works

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Sarah Kletka sat with her good friend Rachel Works at New Life Church on Sunday, only hours before the teen was shot.

"I was one of the last people she talked to," said Kletka, 16. "The last thing I said to her was that I loved her. I gave her a hug and said I would see her next week. She just said she loved me too and gave me a hug and said, 'Good luck on finals."

Kletka left church early so she wasn't around when the shooting started. When she heard about it, she franticly text-messaged her New Life friends. All of them replied - except Rachel.

Rachel's sister Stephanie Works, 18, died in the parking lot after both sisters were shot by Matthew Murray. Rachel was injured and died later at Penrose Hospital. Their father, David Works, 51, was shot twice and was listed in fair condition.

Kletka met the sisters through the church youth group last summer.

"Stephanie was very loud and very vibrant," Kletka said. "She was really fun to hang out with. Rachel was a little more quiet but once she got to know you she really opened up her heart."

Kletka and Rachel became good friends.

"Rachel, she was just very artistic, into fashion and music and movies," Kletka said.

She liked listening to soundtracks from movies. She loved the films, Pirates of the Caribbean and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Kletka said both sisters were deeply religious. Both were home-schooled. Rachel wanted to earn a GED and land an internship. Stephanie had graduated.

Friend Esther Saforo, 17, also saw the sisters at church Sunday.

"All those three sisters together are so close," said Saforo, including Stephanie's twin sister Laurie. "Stephanie was definitely a ray of sunshine in any situation."

Rachel was more reserved. Saforo said she and Rachel were hoping to take a missionary trip to Africa this summer.

"When I heard Rachel was hurt and Stephanie passed away, my heart broke," Saforo said. "Those were two girls who were definitely going to change the world. And I think they already have."

The Works family is well-known in Denver.

Charles E. Works, the sisters' great-grandfather, served in the Colorado legislature in the mid-1920s. His son John Works of Denver was highly involved in the Monticello Association, created for descendents of Thomas Jefferson, and fought for recognition of the descendents of slave Sally Hemings. He died in 2004.

His second wife, Ursula Moore Works, who died in 2006, was an East High School graduate described as "Denver's original soccer mom" because she pioneered a civic soccer program in Denver in 1963.

David Works took up his father's position in the Hemings debate, arguing that a separate organization be formed for the newly found cousins.

He and his brother John Jr., who also lives in the area, publicly differed on the issue. Both men are seventh generation grandson's of the nation's third president.

John Works, an oil and gas entrepreneur and a Democrat, considered running for the 7th Congressional District seat in 2003 but opted against it.

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