School mourns loss of Marble Hill teenager

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- A Woodland High School sophomore was killed Wednesday morning in a one-vehicle accident on Highway 51.

According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Lauren Rhodes, 16, was southbound on Highway 51 five miles north of Marble Hill just before 8 a.m. when her 1998 Ford began to slide. The vehicle ran off the right side of the road and struck a tree.

Bollinger County Coroner Charles Hutchings pronounced her dead at the scene. She had been wearing a seat belt.

Rhodes is the second student in a little more than a year to die in a highway accident. On Nov. 19, 2008, Cole Benfield was killed on Highway 34 while on his way to school.

"We've had more than our share, I think," said superintendent Jennings Wilkinson. "Sometimes you wonder -- you don't understand God's plan, but why us and why so often?"

Rebecca Brannon knew both Benfield and Rhodes and is having a hard time right now, said her mother, Dee Graves of Scopus, Mo. Although the two students were driving on different roads, Highway 51 and Highway 34 are both hilly, curvy and have no shoulders, making driving more difficult for the inexperienced.

"I told my daughter -- and I tell her every day to be careful -- but I'm going to tell her more now, please, please be careful," Graves said. "I just have to put her in God's hands and know she'll be OK."

Woodland principal Shana Kite said Rhodes was an outgoing, friendly girl. She was one of four children, the youngest just a baby, Graves said.

"She was fun," Kite said. "She was always smiling in the hallways. She had a good group of friends with her all the time. Whenever I would see her, she would always give me a smile. She was like that with everyone, all her teachers and students in school."

Kite said Rhodes was a member of Woodland's FCCLA, FFA and BETA Club. She played softball and was an honor student.

Woodland's girls basketball team was scheduled to play Saxony Lutheran High School on Wednesday at the Saint Francis Medical Center Holiday Classic but canceled the game. Rhodes wasn't a member of the team, but the girls on the team were too upset to play, Wilkinson said.

Wilkinson said he and the staff will open the school on the day of visitation so students "can walk the halls and talk and be together."

Woodland's crisis team met Wednesday morning, he said, and made plans to offer additional counseling to students when school reopens after the first of the year.