Mourning Heather: Vigils honor band instructor killed in crash

The somber mood that prevailed during a Sunday night vigil in American Fork was in stark contrast to the chaos that briefly reigned the night before at the scene of a bus crash in southern Idaho that claimed the life of an American Fork High School band instructor and injured several band members.

At the American Fork High School vigil Sunday night, school band director John Miller told band members "I think she truly gave her life for you" as he paid tribute to Heather Christensen, 33, who died at the scene of the Saturday night crash.

Witnesses say Christensen went to the aid of the bus driver, who had apparently blacked out, and vainly tried to gain control of the bus just before it crashed. Her actions were seen as preventing even more tragic results from occurring.

The championship big band's next competition will be at BYU on Tuesday, where Christensen's photo will be added to a collection of World War II veterans' photos that are a part of the field show, which is a tribute to "The Greatest Generation."

Miller told band members, parents and supporters that he thinks her picture belongs there.

As Miller took the microphone, he raised a set of military-style dog tags and rattled them. Band members raised similar dog tags each had been issued as part of the show and shook them, and in a packed high school gymnasium, the sounds of rattling metal mingled with the sobs of grieving band members.

Miller said band members had decided to honor Christensen the next day by wearing no dresses, which she disliked, and flip-flops, which she often wore.

Christensen's mother, Annette Tippets, told the students, "I want you to know that Heather is so happy now. I know she's not sad. We are. I'm grateful for her life."

Gov. Gary Herbert, who was born in American Fork, told the students that Christensen was a hero.

"But for her actions this tragedy would be so much worse than it is. Someone who has given up her life for others is a great example to all of us," he said. "The greatest memorial you can give to Heather is how you live your lives going forward."

The beloved band instructor touched hundreds of lives, leaving a mark on each and every one, said tearful Riverton High students and alumni who remembered Christensen's six years teaching at their school during a vigil there Sunday night.

Candles flickered in shaking hands, but people's sniffles weren't from the cold, they were from the weeping as people stepped forward one by one Sunday night to give "bandimony" — a term Christensen had created after The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints practice of giving testimony in church.