'Sometime,' 'at some point': For family of those killed, a visit to Sept. 11 Museum ...

They're not quite ready to go back.

Although invited to the opening of the National Sept. 11 Museum, the families of three men with Knoxville ties who died on Sept. 11, 2001, did not attend the ceremonies Thursday in New York City.

'I watched the broadcast, and it was very touching,' said Gayle Barker of Powell, whose brother, Tony Karnes, died in terrorist attacks. 'I wasn't sure I wanted to watch it at first. And two, you know I'm not real sure if I'm ready to go up there yet. My sister, Brenda (Vandever), plans to visit in July.'

Knoxville native William Anthony 'Tony' Karnes moved to New York City in 1999. He was a software trainer with Marsh & McLennan, according to Barker, died when two airplanes hijacked by terrorists slammed into the World Trade Center towers, collapsing them and killing more than 2,700 people.

'He was so proud of living up there, so proud of that New York address,' Barker said of her brother. 'He and I went to the Empire State Building, we saw plays, went to restaurants. He just loved showing you around.

'He was just a very caring individual, he was fun loving. Everybody that came in contact with him just loved him.'

Barker said she visited the memorial portion of the site last year, which features a reflecting pool surrounded by black granite walls with the carvings of each victim's name. She made an etching of her brother's name.

'It was a very reverent place,' Barker said. 'Nobody said anything, and I'm sure the museum is going to be that way, too.'

The parents of John Robinson 'Rob' Lenoir, who worked on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center's South Tower, also live in Knoxville. Pat Lenoir, his mother, said they will visit the museum at some point.

'Not this year that we know of, but we do hope to visit it sometime,' she said. 'I've seen (the museum) on TV, and it looks like they've done a wonderful job.'

Lenoir said her daughter-in-law and two grandchildren still live in the New York area. Grandson Andrew Lenoir, 24, is graduating from Columbia University this month, and his sister, Courtney, 22, graduates from New York University.

Andrew Lenoir, who wrote a piece in 2011 for The Huffington Post reflecting on the 10 years since 9/11, also said he plans to visit the museum 'at some point.'

'I think my family has come to the conclusion that, as much as the memory of the event is inextricable from the acknowledgment of my father, our lives are the memorials to him more than a building,' he said.

'It looks lovely. I think they've done a good job with it, but the memory of my father isn't necessarily in any memorial.'

Glenda Kirk of Knoxville, sister-in-law of Timothy Haviland, who also worked for Marsh & McLennan at the World Trade Center, said she and her husband, Bruce Haviland, have not visited New York since 2001.

'Not today, but we do have plans eventually to go,' Kirk said of the museum.

'We went within the first couple of months down to the site, and they let us go behind the fence. That was pretty overwhelming, and we have not been back. It's just been hard to do that,' Kirk said.

'You know, (Tim) was just a good guy. He went to work that morning, and he didn't deserve it. But then neither did anyone that day.'

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