Recent Arlington HS grad killed in car accident

Friends and family are mourning the loss of an Arlington High School graduate who died in a crash in Freestone County Monday morning.

Rebecca Read was with three other girls who were on their way to Galveston. They were all in the school’s choir program.

The group was driving south on Interstate 45 near Fairfield, Texas, around 10 a.m. When the Jeep Wrangler drifted off the highway, the driver overcorrected, causing the Jeep to roll over across both lanes of the road.

Friends say Read died in the rollover accident, but further details aren’t known.

Two of the girls in the accident were transferred to Baylor Medical Center in Dallas. A hospital spokesperson said Peyton Cates was in stable condition but did not have the condition of the other girl.

A friend of Read remembered her as a talented young girl with a sweet voice.

"She was singing wherever she went. I would see her in the halls outside of church. She would always have a smile. She was just that person that everybody loved,” said Lexy Pritchard, a friend of Read. "When I saw that they were going on vacation I was like good for them. We've graduated and this is something they're going to do, and I never thought we would lose someone along the way."

Leslie Johnson, spokesman for Arlington ISD, said the choir room at Arlington High School will be open from 9 a.m. to noon on Tuesday with a counselor on duty for friends and classmates who are struggling with the grieving process.