One was a Kansas University graduate student making a life out of her love for fitness and recreation. The other was a construction worker who loved to cook.

A day after a three-vehicle crash that killed them, family and friends Tuesday were mourning the losses of two more lives on a highway that has long had a deadly reputation.

Chantal E. Anderson, 25, and Jesse Blake, 24, were the fourth and fifth victims of U.S. Highway 40 west of Lawrence in the past two years.

Both lived in Lawrence.

“She was very athletic — very talented,” longtime friend Susan Booth said of Anderson. “She was very popular. There are going to be a lot of people at her funeral.”

Blake had found a way to balance his interest in cooking and building houses.

“He was at a point in his life where he was starting to figure it all out,” said Blake’s stepfather, Gary Blindt.

Blake and Anderson were in one of three vehicles involved in the crash about 4:40 p.m. Monday near the highway’s intersection with East 800 Road, according to the Kansas Highway Patrol.

They were passengers in a 2000 Honda Civic driven by Anderson’s boyfriend, Jonathan “J.P” Merz, 24, Lawrence. Merz was injured and taken by helicopter ambulance to KU Med in Kansas City, Kan. Hospital officials Tuesday said they couldn’t release any information about his condition because of privacy restrictions.

Susan Booth, co-owner of New Horizons Tae Kwon Do, 2329 Iowa, posts a collage of photos in memory of Chantal Anderson, an instructor at the school who was killed Monday in a car wreck. At left Tuesday was Kelsey Trast, 8, a former student of Anderson's.

Two other people — Robert E. Russell, 52, of Baldwin, and Phillip J. Vannicola, 45, of Lecompton — were taken by ambulance to Lawrence Memorial Hospital where they were treated and released, hospital officials said.

According to the Highway Patrol, the Honda was stopped in the eastbound lane on the highway when it was struck by an eastbound 1986 Ford pickup truck driven by Russell. The impact pushed the Honda into the westbound lane, where it was struck in the side by a westbound 2002 Dodge pickup truck driven by Vannicola.

Anderson and Blake were pronounced dead at the scene.

Varied interests

Anderson had dreams of moving to Colorado, opening her own martial arts studio and working as an athletic trainer, said her father, Brian “Chip” Anderson, a teacher and coach at Lawrence High School.

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“She loved Colorado and wanted to move back,” Chip Anderson said. The family lived in Colorado for several years.

Chantal Anderson was a fourth-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do. She taught kickboxing classes at New Horizon Tae Kwon Do, 2329 Iowa. The business is owned by Booth and her husband, Don Booth.

But Chantal Anderson had many other interests, her father said.

“She loved art and she loved music,” Chip Anderson said. “She had a knack of being able to explain things to people.”

While a student at LHS, she sang in choirs. She graduated from Kansas University and was a certified athletic trainer who often worked with KU athletes. She was working on a master’s degree in sports administration.

Chantal Anderson had been dating Merz for five or six years, her father said. Merz also is a graduate student at KU.

In a prepared statement issued Tuesday, KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway expressed the university’s “profound sorrow” about the accident and offered condolences to all of the family members.

Artist with food

Merz and Chantal Anderson had been taking Blake car hunting, Blint said.

His family will always have many good memories of him, Blindt said.

“He was always the cook at all the family barbecues,” Blindt said. “He loved to cook. He liked the idea of being able to make art with food and making it look good as well as taste good.”

Blake, who once cooked at Mojo’s, 714 Vt., studied cooking and considered being a chef while attending Johnson County Community College, Blindt said. But Blake didn’t like the management aspect of the program and instead decided to work with his father, Gary Blake, as a construction worker building frame houses, Blindt said.

“He was an excellent frame carpenter,” Blindt said.