Courtney O'Bryan remembered by friends, family

Those who knew Courtney O'Bryan best described her as a carefree teen whose life revolved around family and friends.

"She was up for anything all the time; any adventure, we'd do it," said close friend Sarah Ehrman, 18, of Huntington. "She is probably the most free-spirited person I know."

O'Bryan, 18, a Penn State freshman from Huntington, died in a wreck on an icy highway Friday while on a cancer fundraising trip. She and four other students were headed to Buffalo about 8:30 p.m. when their sport utility vehicle hit a patch of ice in Pennsylvania, overturned and slammed into a tree. O'Bryan was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. The other students were expected to recover.

Sunday, family members and friends said O'Bryan touched many lives as a daughter, friend, athlete and student.

Bill O'Bryan, her father, said she was a self-motivated person who juggled playing basketball, soccer and lacrosse at Huntington High School with a vibrant social life and dozens of challenging classes. "We would say, 'You don't need to do three sports,' " he recalled. "She would say, 'I know, Dad, but I love it.' "

Lisa Brigandi, the teen's mother, said her daughter was the middle child who loved her older sister, Ashley, 21, and younger brother Kyle, 15. "She just had a very big heart," she said. Brigandi added that her daughter chose Penn State because of its school spirit.

"On her bucket list was to be thrown up in the air when the Penn State team scored a touchdown," said friend Jackie Waldron, 18, of Huntington. "She had so much fun. She had made so many friends."

O'Bryan had planned to show off her new campus to Waldron, Ehrman and her two other best friends, Ehrman said.

At the time of the accident, O'Bryan was traveling on behalf of Sigma Delta Tau as part of a group of sororities and fraternities raising money for the fight against pediatric cancer, the university said.

"She stood out because she was outgoing and easy to talk to," said Shelby Rudolph, 20, of Jericho, president of the campus Sigma Delta Tau chapter.

Those close to O'Bryan said they are still in shock. By Sunday, her friends had painted a large rock at the entrance of Huntington High School with a quote O'Bryan provided to the school's 2011 yearbook: "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened."

Services for O'Bryan will be held Monday and Tuesday from 2 to 4 p.m. and from 7 to 9 p.m. at M.A. Connell Funeral Home in Huntington Station. A funeral Mass will be offered at 9:45 a.m. Wednesday at the Church of St. Patrick in Huntington.