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They were the children of labor leaders, of policemen, of county officials and of doctors (including one whose teen-age son's heart, corneas and kidneys were used in transplant operations soon afterward). The boys and girls had gone through junior high school together. They had all performed together in Fiddler on the Roof earlier this year. Only three weeks from graduation, many of them had gone to the prom the previous Saturday. Now their friends dazedly shuffled through Yuba City High School, pausing disconsolately from time to time at the principal's window to read the daily notice that listed the condition of the injured; at week's end 17 were still in the hospital. Said Karen Hess, 18, the president of the student body: "This is the first time that most of us have ever had close friends die." At 9:30 a.m. one day, Linda Green, an 18-year-old senior attended a memorial service at the Ullrey Memorial Chapel for Rachel Carlson, 16. At 11 a.m. she went to the First Methodist Church for a service in memory of Maria Azim, 15. At 5 p.m. she attended a memorial service at the Chapel of the Twin Cities for Jodi Lynn McCoy, 18.
In their grief, the people of Yuba City were drawn together—by the ties of tragedy and friendship, by anger at prying reporters (some of whom were thrown off the high school campus and out of several stores) and by good deeds. Within hours of the accident, school officials established a Yuba City Choir Memorial Fund, which quickly collected $10,000 in cash and pledges for another $20,000. Private pilots ferried parents of the injured students, free of charge, to hospitals in Martinez. The Loyal Order of the Moose set up a center that collected 313 pints of blood in eight hours and had to turn away hundreds of prospective donors. An undertaker offered free burial plots but had no takers.
Religious Faith. But none of that could dispel the pain. Said Housewife Mary Lawrence: "I feel for parents who have no religious faith. What can you do if you love a child and then lose him? You have to take your strength from somewhere else." Said State Highway Patrolman Dan Gust: "I've seen a lot of accidents. But when you get right down to it, you get hurt just the same as anybody else." Gust's son, Steven, 17, had died in the crash.