Felisa Estella Rosa Barnes, age 19 years, of Erie, MI, went to be with the Lord Jesus on Tuesday, October 20, 2009. Born January 11, 1990, in Toledo, OH, she was the daughter of Bruce A. and Maria L. (Larios) Barnes. She was a 2008 graduate from Mason Consolidated High School, where she was crowned prom and homecoming queen, was also active in cross country, track, drama club, N.H.S. , student council and cheerleading. Felisa was currently a sophomore at Michigan State University, majoring in communications. She was creative, giving, and selfless and touched many people's lives. She influenced people by her outgoing spontaneous and kind personality. Felisa enjoyed her family and friends dearly but most of all was a follower of Jesus Christ. Surviving are her loving parents, Maria (Scott Dudek) Barnes and Bruce A. (Sandra Williams) Barnes, Sr.; brother, Bruce A. Barnes, Jr.; sisters, Rashonda L. (Kevin) Darr and Christa S.M. Barnes; Nana, Rose Ann (Ron Schieb) Barnes; Aunt, Wendy (Jerry) Bodell and Uncle, Steve (Debbie St. Clair) Barnes; 2 nieces, 1 nephew and several cousins. Visitation will be from 2-9 p.m. Saturday at the Michael W. Pawlak Funeral Home, 1640 Smith Rd. (at Jackman) Temperance, MI. Funeral services will be held Sunday at 3 p.m. at Mason Consolidated High School Gymnasium, 2400 Mason Eagle Drive, Erie, MI, where she will lie in state after 1 p.m. www.pawlakfuneralhome.com


****Monroe Evening News October 22, 2009********

A Mason High School graduate, homecoming queen, athlete and well-respected student was killed in a car accident on US-23 near Brighton.


Felisa Barnes, a sophomore at Michigan State University, died in the crash Tuesday night north of Silver Lake Rd. in Green Oak Township. She was 19.


"Yesterday was a very emotional day for us," said Jo Ann Spicer, principal at Mason High School. "We're trying to come to grips with it."


Ms. Spicer said that although Felisa graduated in 2008, she was involved with so many things that many current students knew her and are mourning.


"She was just so friendly all the time," Ms. Spicer said. "We lost a family member. It just doesn't seem real."


Green Oak Township police reported the accident occurred about 7:30 p.m. a mile north of Silver Lake Rd. Police said Felisa was driving a 1999 Pontiac Grand Prix in the southbound lanes when her car went out of control after sideswiping a tractor trailer.


According to police, Felisa's car crossed the grass median and overturned. The car went airborne, entered the northbound lanes and landed on the roof of a northbound 1995 Chrysler Concord.







On the day Felisa Estella Rosa Barnes was crowned homecoming queen in high school, she cried. Her father, gone for most of the year, had returned home and she was overjoyed the family finally was together. Prioritizing friends and family is a trait that followed Felisa Barnes throughout her life and that friends and family always will remember.


Barnes
"It didn't even faze her that she won," said her sister, criminal justice senior Christa Barnes. "She was just happy to be with the family — just crying so hard. Even though she got homecoming queen, she didn't really care because she was just so happy the family was together."

Felisa Barnes, a 19-year-old communication sophomore, died Tuesday in a Green Oak, Mich., car accident. She lost control of the Pontiac Grand Prix she was driving on US-23 after sideswiping a semi-tractor trailer, according to a statement from Green Oak Charter Township police.

The Grand Prix crossed the median and overturned, and entered the opposite lane of traffic, where it collided with a Chrysler Concord, the release stated. Felisa Barnes was pronounced dead at the scene, Green Oak police Deputy Chief Jason Pless said.

The driver of the Concord, a 19-year-old man from Ann Arbor, is in serious condition at the University of Michigan Hospital, but is expected to survive, Pless said. The driver of the semi-tractor trailer, a 50-year-old Spring Hill, Fla., man, was not injured, the statement read. Investigation continues into the cause of the accident, Pless said.

A 2008 graduate of Erie-Mason High School, Felisa Barnes was involved in cheerleading, volunteering, student council, volleyball, track and cross country, Christa Barnes said.

"When she was little, she was pigeon-toed and they wanted to break her legs and reset them, and I said, ‘No,' because she got scared," said her father, Bruce Anthony Barnes Sr. "We used to turn around and have her … sit backward on her feet. She ended up becoming a runner and we never got her legs fixed and she was … awesome."

Friends and family remember Felisa Barnes as selfless and always wanting to help others; she was an organ donor who wanted to volunteer with the Big Brothers Big Sisters program and hoped to participate in Alternative Spring Break.

She was creative and unique, a free-spirited girl who called the day she saw Incubus with her little brother the best day of her life. She loved to be outside, close friend and psychology sophomore Stephanie Allain said.

"She would always make me walk back from class — even if it was freezing — all the way across campus, because we had a class together at Natural Sciences," she said. "She always made me walk back to (the Brody Complex). Even if it was freezing cold and it was snowing, she was like, ‘No, no it's fine.'"

Felisa Barnes' contagious laughter and one-of-a-kind personality drew people to her, Allain said.

"You could just talk about her forever because there are so many good things to say about her," she said. "If you met someone who knew her and you started describing her, they knew exactly who she was."