Santa Barbara, Calif. ? With hundreds of mourners gathered Sunday at the University of California-Santa Barbara, families of the six postal workers slain by a former colleague last month received the Postal Service’s highest honor on behalf of the fallen employees.

Al Iniguez, the service’s highest-ranking executive in California, presented relatives with the Postmaster General’s Medal of Freedom.

The memorial at UCSB came after a week of funerals for many of the victims of Jennifer Sanmarco, 44.

A part-time clerk whose psychological problems forced her to leave the Postal Service on a medical disability in 2001, Sanmarco turned her gun on herself after she killed the others on Jan. 30. She also had gone to her former condominium complex and fatally shot a neighbor.

The neighbor was Beverly Graham, 54. The slain postal workers were: Charlotte Colton, 44; Ze Fairchild, 37; Nicola Grant, 42; Maleka Higgins, 38; Dexter Shannon, 58; and Guadalupe Swartz, 52.