LAKEPORT -- Activist Marla Ruzicka was remembered Saturday for her dedication to humanitarian causes and her personal mission of counting civilian war deaths in Iraq.

Video

Video On Demand: Diane Guerrazzi Reports On Family Remembering Marla Ruzicka

Friends, family, colleagues and journalists offered memories of a passionate, dedicated, young woman who accomplished much in 28 years. Mourners came from around the world for the service, which lasted more than three hours.

Kevin Danaher, co-founder of San Francisco-based Global Exchange, a nonprofit international human rights organization, said Ruzicka's magic was understanding and showing unconditional love.

"That's why a 28-year-old woman from a small town in Northern California has so many people around the world grieving for her," Danaher said.

Ruzicka's mission as founder of CIVIC, the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, was to tally the toll of civilian deaths. Last Saturday, she became one of those statistics when she was killed in a car bombing in Baghdad, along with her interpreter and another foreigner.

More than 400 people packed into St. Mary's Catholic Church and more than 200 stood outside under darkening skies in Ruzicka's hometown, a city on the shore of Clear Lake in remote Northern California, about 350 miles north of San Francisco.

The Rev. Ted Oswald celebrated the Mass honoring Ruzicka. He offered a mix of personal anecdotes, referred to the recent death of Pope John Paul II and compared her to Mother Teresa. The upbeat homily brought laughter and applause from the congregation, which included actor Sean Penn, who also has spent time in Iraq and said he counted Ruzicka among his heroes.

Oswald told of how, as an 8-year-old, Ruzicka sold rocks door-to-door for a quarter, then used the money to buy her mother flowers.

He said she had done things in her own quiet way -- and in a not-so-quiet way.

"There's no doubt in my mind that the good Lord has his hands full right now," Oswald said, referring to Ruzicka's outspoken nature. "Not only does he have his hands full, but heaven will never be the same."

Several journalists offered accounts of how they had met her, the social events she organized in Afghanistan and Iraq, her boundless energy and her commitment to her cause. They also told lighter stories about how she arrived unprepared, bumbled with her cell phone, but quickly won them over.

"She made me feel like I was the greatest person on earth," said Quill Lawrence who works for BBC. "I have it in writing. And I know all of you do as well."

Several speakers said no one in the church during the course of much longer lives would be able to accomplish what she had in her short lifetime.

But Bobby Muller, chairman of Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, said the true value of her work was that she countered the festering cynicism that has left people feeling powerless.

"Marla demonstrated the fact that an individual can make a profound difference in this world," Muller said. "This woman was our inspiration."