Everlasting Memories Of Teenage Victim: Deep Faith, Big Smile

The photos that flashed on the screen in the packed church showed a smiling, brown-eyed beauty with a mad sense of fashion. There were photos of her on the beach, wobbling on ice skates, smiling for her senior class photos and posing in a shiny, satiny purple prom dress, a huge grin on her face.

And that's how Ashley Younger's family and friends will remember the 17-year-old, who was one of four people killed this weekend when a medical helicopter crashed while taking her and a friend from the site of a car accident on a wet roadway in Waldorf to Prince George's Hospital Center.

Younger's friends and family gathered at Victory Chapel in Accokeek yesterday evening to remember the spunky teenager who loved the color purple, her deep faith and shopping for clothes to match her "Bohemian chic" style.

Dozens of teenagers and teachers lined up to share memories. A teacher from Waldorf's Westlake High School, from which Younger graduated in June, recalled how engaged she was in her classes, "the kind of girl who sits front row, center."

Others recounted how Younger was nice to everyone and could make anyone smile, anytime.

A friend from Frostburg State University, where Younger was a freshman, said she "was an amazing person" who was "my rock in school."

"I loved watching her smile," the friend said.

Younger and her single mother, Stephanie Younger, were best friends, supporting each other while the mother served in the Army, far from their family's home in South Carolina. Younger's funeral will be tomorrow at Island Creek Baptist Church in Cowpens, S.C., home to most of the Younger family.

At yesterday's memorial service, Stephanie Younger accepted hugs by the dozen.

Over the weekend, Ashley Younger had left campus to come home for her mother's promotion ceremony at the Pentagon, which had been planned for Monday. Stephanie Younger is being promoted to sergeant 1st class. The ceremony was deferred.

On Saturday evening, Younger put on the blue sundress she had worn to a family party in honor of her graduation. She and Jordan Wells, a friend who also graduated from Westlake High this year, went to a carnival at the Waldorf mall. They thought about going to a movie but at 10:30 p.m. decided to call it a night.

Wells was near the entrance to Younger's neighborhood when her Ford Taurus sedan skidded on wet pavement, crossed a median and hit several trees and another car. Younger immediately called her mother, who came to the scene.

Younger had no visible injuries but was complaining of chest pains, her mother recalled. Rescue workers decided to take both of the young women to the Cheverly hospital, the closest trauma center, by helicopter.

But the helicopter encountered bad weather, lost radio contact about midnight and crashed in Walker Mill Regional Park in Prince George's County.

In addition to Younger, three others were killed: Pilot Stephen J. Bunker of Waldorf, volunteer medic Tonya Mallard of Waldorf and Trooper Mickey C. Lippy of Carroll County, on onboard paramedic. Lippy's funeral is scheduled for today, and funerals for Bunker and Mallard will be held tomorrow morning.

Wells, Younger's friend, suffered numerous broken bones and a bruised lung but is expected to recover.

Chrystal Benson, principal of Westlake High, described Younger as a smart, outgoing, popular, "very spirited girl" who had no problem making friends when she moved to Waldorf from Northern Virginia in her junior year.