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3 students killed in highway crash
Lee County accident claims FM, Allen graduates and friend
08:43 PM CST on Sunday, December 7, 2003
By IAN McCANN / The Dallas Morning News
Jeannette Marquis, Adrienne Voorn and Meagan Duran had become close friends in their first few months at Texas State University in San Marcos.
They and Ms. Duran's roommate Rachel Wilson studied together, ate together and cared for each other when they were sick. Ms. Voorn, of Flower Mound, and Ms. Marquis, of Allen, lived in a room down the hall from the other two girls.
On their way to visit friends at Texas A&M University in College Station, Ms. Marquis, Ms. Voorn and Ms. Duran died in a collision Saturday afternoon, a loss that's just beginning to sink in for Ms. Wilson.
The four college freshmen – with different personalities, from different parts of the state – formed the kind of bond that only dorm life can create.
"Living on your own, it's just so nice to find people you can click with and cry with and laugh with," said Ms. Wilson, 18, of The Woodlands. "I'm still in shock. It was just a spur-of-the-moment trip for them."
The three died after a car traveling west on State Highway 21 in Lee County about 50 miles outside College Station ran onto the shoulder, overcorrected and crossed into the eastbound lanes. The cars hit nearly head-on about 2:45 p.m. Ms. Marquis and Ms. Voorn died at the scene. Ms. Duran was taken to a hospital and died later.
The driver of the other car, whose name wasn't released by Texas Department of Public Safety officials, was taken to Brackenridge Hospital in Austin, where she remained in critical condition. DPS officials said troopers are continuing to investigate why the woman lost control.
Ms. Marquis, 18, was the bubbly, outgoing one of the group. The 2003 Allen High School graduate helped to organize the Diamond Darlings, a group that decorated baseball players' lockers at the school. Among the people they were going to visit was her boyfriend, James Morgan, a Texas A&M student.
"She had a million friends – she was extremely social," her father, Mike Marquis, said Sunday. "I can tell you that at that Allen football game last night, half of the stadium knew about it, just from people talking about it."
Ms. Marquis was the oldest of two daughters.
Mr. Marquis said he was proud of his daughter, who had fit in well at Texas State. She had decided to study communications and had joined the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority.
"She looked forward to getting out of small-town Allen and spreading her wings," he said. "She was starting to soar."
Ms. Voorn, a 2003 Flower Mound High School graduate, was more quiet, with a small group of tight-knit friends. She began studying ballet at an early age and was part of the Rosettes, a dance group at the high school.
"It was gratifying to us to see she was doing so well" at Texas State, her father, Hans Voorn, said of his only daughter. He has two sons. "We had the usual concerns about whether she was going to make it so far from home. We were very happy to see that she had bonded with these girls."
Ms. Wilson said that Ms. Duran, a 19-year-old from the San Antonio suburb of Helotes, was less outgoing, like Ms. Voorn.
"We had the same sense of humor," Ms. Wilson said. "We wanted to stay roommates, and Jeannette and Adrienne wanted to stay roommates, and we were already talking about what dorm we wanted to live in next year."
Ms. Duran's family could not be reached for comment. Funeral services are pending for both Ms. Voorn and Ms. Marquis.
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