--- title: Memorial Service Held for First U.S. Ebola Victim description: Family and friends of Thomas Eric Duncan, the first and so far only person to die of Ebola in the U.S., gathered Saturday for a memorial. canonical: https://time.com/3520193/memorial-service-held-for-first-u-s-ebola-victim/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-18T17:55:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:52:28.129Z article:section: Health og:title: Memorial Service Held for First U.S. Ebola Victim og:description: Family and friends of Thomas Eric Duncan, the first and so far only person to die of Ebola in the U.S., gathered Saturday for a memorial. og:url: https://time.com/3520193/memorial-service-held-for-first-u-s-ebola-victim/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc992e7c460a7b74/698760c906f2c1247d331610/ebola_gros1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Thomas Eric Duncan og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Memorial Service Held for First U.S. Ebola Victim twitter:description: Family and friends of Thomas Eric Duncan, the first and so far only person to die of Ebola in the U.S., gathered Saturday for a memorial. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc992e7c460a7b74/698760c906f2c1247d331610/ebola_gros1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Memorial Service Held for First U.S. Ebola Victim > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=b18fe662-73fb-4975-b797-166a2933474a&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Oct 18, 2014 5:55 PM UTC  Thomas Eric Duncan, the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the U.S., at a wedding in Ghana in 2011. Thomas Eric Duncan, the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the U.S., at a wedding in Ghana in 2011. Wilmot Chayee—AP by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Oct 18, 2014 5:55 PM UTC Family and friends of Thomas Eric Duncan, the first and so far only person to die of Ebola in the U.S., gathered Saturday for an emotional memorial service in North Carolina. Mourners celebrated the 42-year-old’s life at Rowan International Church in Salisbury, where his sister, mother and nephew worship, according to NBC affiliate [WCNC](http://www.wcnc.com/videos/news/health/2014/10/18/15973738/). Duncan died in Dallas on Oct. 8, and had started showing symptoms of the virus on Sept. 24 after travelling to Texas from Liberia. He wasn’t admitted to a Dallas hospital until Sept. 28 — two days after he first visited the hospital… [Read the rest of the story on NBC News.](http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/memorial-service-held-ebola-victim-thomas-eric-duncan-n228806?cid=par-time-article%5F20141018) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3520193/memorial-service-held-for-first-u-s-ebola-victim/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3520193/memorial-service-held-for-first-u-s-ebola-victim/"},"headline":"Memorial Service Held for First U.S. Ebola Victim","datePublished":"2014-10-18T17:55:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:52:28.129Z","description":"Family and friends of Thomas Eric Duncan, the first and so far only person to die of Ebola in the U.S., gathered Saturday for a memorial.","url":"https://time.com/3520193/memorial-service-held-for-first-u-s-ebola-victim/","keywords":["ebola"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc992e7c460a7b74/698760c906f2c1247d331610/ebola_gros1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NBC News","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nbc-news/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc992e7c460a7b74/698760c906f2c1247d331610/ebola_gros1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Thomas Eric Duncan","caption":"Thomas Eric Duncan","creditText":"Wilmot Chayee—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/ebola/","name":"ebola"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3520193/memorial-service-held-for-first-u-s-ebola-victim/","name":"Memorial Service Held for First U.S. Ebola Victim"}}]}] ```