Sarah Elbayoumy almost always got straight A’s. She excelled in music, won spelling bees and wasn’t afraid to challenge a textbook in class when she thought it was inaccurate.

Sarah Elbayoumy

“She was a perfectionist, to some extent,” said her father, Moussa Elbayoumy. “She liked to do the right thing.”

In addition, the 16-year-old Free State High School junior almost always wore her seat belt, her father said. But in a momentary lapse Sunday — as she was headed to St. Louis for a college-visit trip with her mother and younger sister — she took off the seat belt and climbed into the back seat to have a snack with her sister.

At that moment, the family’s 1997 Mazda blew a tire. Sarah’s mother, Maggie Khater, of Lawrence, lost control at the wheel. The car crossed the median and overturned in the westbound lanes of Interstate 70 near Columbia, Mo., according to a Missouri Highway Patrol report.

A westbound vehicle driven by a 26-year-old Webster Groves, Mo., woman then struck the overturned car, killing Sarah instantly, according to the report. Sarah’s 9-year-old sister, Nora, went to a nearby hospital overnight for observation, but no one else was seriously injured.

Obituary: Sarah Elbayoumy

“We can’t imagine her younger sister living without her,” Moussa Elbayoumy said. “We used to call Sarah the assistant mom. She was the one that picked the name for her little sister… They loved each other so much.”

Sarah’s father said she died wearing a T-shirt from the college she planned to attend: Duke University. She was going to St. Louis this weekend to visit Washington University and St. Louis University as a way to prepare for the college application process.

She was a two-time Douglas County spelling bee champion, and her score on the PSAT test made her a likely candidate for a National Merit Scholarship, her father said. She swam, sang, played piano and clarinet, and founded a multicultural club at her high school, among other activities.

But beyond being a brilliant and involved student, she believed in justice and fairness, those who knew her said. She was thinking about using her love of languages– Spanish, Latin, English, Arabic — to pursue a career in international relations.

“Anybody you talked to just really, really respected her because she had her mind set on the right things,” said Flora Jiang, a friend and classmate. “She was so mature.”

Sarah shied away from being officially involved with the Islamic Center of Lawrence, which her father directs. But she tried to live her life as “a beacon” to show other people by example what her faith meant, he said.

“She was involved on a very personal level in faith issues,” he said.

Sarah’s family picked her body up Monday in Columbia and drove her back to Kansas City. According to Muslim tradition, her body was washed carefully and wrapped in a shroud.

After a service at the Islamic Center of Greater Kansas City, she was buried at a nearby Muslim cemetery. Every person at the service picked up a handful of dirt and helped cover her with it, her father said.

“Our faith is actually the only thing that is holding us together. We believe that God has wisdom beyond our knowledge,” he said. “We grieve because we are not going to see her again, but we are happy because … she went back to where she belongs.”