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Reema Samaha

Reema SamahaReema Samaha, a freshman from Centreville in the Fairfax County suburbs of Washington, had a beaming smile and a passion for show business.

Samaha, 18, was studying drama at Virginia Tech. She was planning to travel to France this summer for her summer-abroad program and strengthen her French, her father told CNN; she was slain Monday when the gunman opened fire in her French class.

"Dance was her life. She loved choreography," her father, Joseph Samaha, told the network in an interview yesterday. She had diverse interests and "loved the world, loved to travel," her father added. He described her as a "terrific, dynamic person" who was "shy, until you got to know her; then she had tons of friends."

At Virginia Tech, Reema Samaha participated in the Contemporary Dance Ensemble, a student organization.

Her brother, Omar, a 23-year-old Tech graduate, told NBC’s "Today" he had visited Blacksburg over the past weekend, when his sister participated in a dance recital and a cultural street fair.

Omar Samaha had to leave before his sister finished performing on Sunday; he had complimented his sister’s work and hugged her, he told "Today," but "I never got to say goodbye."

Omar has another sister, Randa, who is a third-year nursing student at the University of Virginia.

The Samaha family lives in a well-off suburban neighborhood of single-family homes in Centreville. It is a mile or so away from the townhouse neighborhood where the Virginia Tech gunman lived.

Neighbors of the Samahas didn’t know if the victim had known Cho Seung-Hui, the gunman, who, like Reema Samaha, graduated from Westfield High School in Fairfax County.

A friend described Reema Samaha as family-oriented, sweet and caring.

"We’ve all lived in the same neighborhood together for 15 or 20 years," said the friend, Danielle Ragole.

"There was a presence about her that nobody’s ever going to forget," Ragole said. "She’s an unforgettable person."

— Peter Hardin, Media General News Service

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