Students Mourn Deaths of Five in Walkathon

OXFORD, Miss. — More than 3,000 students crowded into the University of Mississippi basketball arena Friday for a memorial service for five sorority sisters who were killed when a truck hit a car and sent it hurtling into their charity walkathon.

Two students died at the side of a state highway Thursday afternoon, a third died at a Memphis, Tenn., hospital Thursday night and two more died Friday, officials said.

Eleven other girls were injured. All were members of the 148-member Chi Omega sorority, which has two Miss Americas among its alumnae.

Nine students remained hospitalized Friday, two of them in intensive care, officials said.

Asking Questions

“We are all here together because we hurt. We are all asking the same questions,” student body President Nancy Horton told the crowd in the basketball arena.

During the 45-minute ceremony, students listened to brief remarks by Chancellor Gerald Turner and area ministers, sang “Amazing Grace” and recited the 23rd Psalm.

The service, originally scheduled to be held in the university’s chapel, was moved to the Tad Smith Coliseum to accommodate the crowd.

Gov. Bill Allain, who attended the ceremony but did not speak, said later that no one appeared at fault in the tragedy. “It is one of those things that is going to happen in life,” he said.

Turner said classes were suspended at midday Friday, a blood drive was started for the injured and informal sessions were planned Sunday to help students cope with their grief.

All-Night Vigil

Many students and advisers kept an all-night vigil Thursday at the Chi Omega house on the 9,045-student campus. The sorority canceled plans for an annual rush party this weekend for 250 high school students interested in joining.

The sorority sisters were walking from Batesville, about 25 miles away, to their house on campus to raise money for the Mississippi Kidney Foundation.

There was an escort vehicle with flashing lights in front of the group and one behind it when it reached the top of a hill. The rear escort was a small foreign car.

Highway Patrolman Steve McClure said that a one-ton truck pulling a hay baler topped the hill and tried to veer around the group but hit the rear of the foreign car, hurling it into the walkers.

Troopers said the speed limit on the highway is 55 m.p.h. and there was no indication of excessive speed. D. D. Cvitanovich, chief of patrol for the state police, said no state police parade permit was needed for the walk alongside the highway.