He was — and always will be — a New Yorker.
Six-year-old Benjamin Wheeler, who died in Friday’s Connecticut school massacre, was born in Manhattan — and “loved . . . the number 7 train in Sunnyside, Queens,’’ his family said yesterday.
The child’s parents recalled how they moved from Queens to bucolic Sandy Hook, Conn., in 2007 on friends’ advice, but that New York was always dear to their son’s heart.
Yesterday, their former Queens community mourned a life cut much too short.
“Ben was such a sweet, calm little boy,” recalled Jennifer Busnel at a memorial service at Sunnyside Reformed Church for Benjamin and his slain principal, Dawn Hochsprung, who also has relatives in the area.
“When you would hold Ben, he would gaze up into your eyes,” said Busnel, a musician. “He was so perfect.”
A third victim, Anne Marie Murphy, 52, also is a former New Yorker, from Katonah in Westchester County. Her wake will be held in Katonah today.
Her funeral will be held tomorrow at St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Katonah.