Mourners Remember Canyon Country Girl : Funeral: Fifteen-year-old JoKema Du Bois is eulogized at burial. She died driving car home from church without permission.

In her photo album, JoKema Du Bois, 15, kept a poem given to her by her grandmother.

It begins, “As long as we remain open with each other, we’ll grow together.”

The poem was read at Du Bois’ memorial service Tuesday. The teen-ager died June 1 after losing control of her grandmother’s car and crashing into two oncoming cars. Du Bois was not old enough to drive--she had snuck out of the house with the keys to the car to drive to a church group meeting.

Two others, including a 3-year-old girl, also died in the accident.

“It’s hard being a teen-ager,” her grandmother, Mary McWilliams, said after the service. McWilliams was also Du Bois’ guardian. She said she had given her granddaughter the poem to try to get across the message that the teen-ager should listen more closely to parental figures.

“I don’t ever tell you anything to hurt you,” she said as if talking to Du Bois, “and no mother ever does. They’re for your own good.”

Her uncle, Ed Luster, who read the poem, said he hoped that the many youths attending the service would take the message to heart.

“If JoKema had been listening, maybe none of this would have happened,” he said.

The teen-ager was eulogized at Eternal Valley Memorial Park in Newhall with more than 250 mourners, most of them students, filling the pews and standing along the walls inside the chapel. Those who knew her said that when their tears dried, Du Bois’ constant laughter and smiles would be what they’d remember.

“You could be upset with her, she could have done something stupid, and she’d say something totally off the wall and you’d just laugh at her,” Luster said.

Friends from Canyon High School and the Canyon Country Assembly of God youth group echoed those sentiments.

“She was one spirited girl,” said Tom Hemrajani, a friend who had known Du Bois for the past two years and was one of her pallbearers. “She was always on the move, always happy.”

Du Bois was driving home from the meeting with several other girls--including her 14-year-old sister, Barbara--when the car crossed the center divider of Seco Canyon Road and collided with two oncoming vehicles. She died at the scene and her sister remains in critical condition at Northridge Hospital Medical Center.

Also killed in the crash were Gena Watkinson, 15, and Jesica Noell, 3.

A fifth passenger, Alicia Acevedo, 14, remains hospitalized.

The occupants of the other vehicles were not seriously injured.

A graveside service for Watkinson is scheduled for 11 a.m. today at Eternal Valley. The 3-year-old will be buried in a private ceremony Thursday.

McWilliams said she will remember her granddaughter as a popular, open-minded person who bore none of the prejudices common in the world.

“She didn’t know anybody tall, short, skinny or fat,” she said. “She didn’t know the difference between black, brown or white. They were all the same to her.”

Carnetta Jones, a youth minister at the church, performed a solo version of a slow, mournful song, “Don’t Cry,” during the service at the request of Du Bois’ family. The tempo became more modern, but tears continued to flow as the song “It’s Hard to Say Good-bye” by the soul group Boyz II Men came from a portable stereo at the outdoor burial.

Ralph Milliken, associate and youth pastor of the church, presided over the service. He told the mourners to be thankful for their memories of Du Bois and to think of her as still playing a role in the larger scheme of things.

“Heaven has much laughter now,” he said. “Much more.”

A memorial fund for the three girls killed in the accident has been established. Donations may be made to the Memorial and Medical Fund, in care of the Santa Clarita Elks Lodge, P. O. Box 1326, Canyon Country, CA 91351.