A wave of Caveman red at a Sunday night memorial service was matched only by those wearing black as a school and community mourned the loss of one of their own.

American Fork teacher Heather Christensen died Saturday after she made a desperate grab for the steering wheel of an out-of-control bus and was then thrown through the window as the vehicle rolled. Five students were injured, though none critically, in the crash on the way back from a band competition in Idaho. The driver of the charter bus is believed to have fainted from a medical condition, which in turn caused the accident.

The focus Sunday in both private and public services at the high school was on Christensen and the school's band members. Young musicians in Caveman jackets milled about the campus before and after, lending shoulders and mixing tears, while staid student body officers ushered crowds. The school gym was standing room only despite hundreds of extra chairs that were quickly brought in.

Christensen wasn't slated to ride the bus on Saturday, said band director John Miller.

" 'Oh yeah, I'm not going to leave my kids alone,' " she told Miller.

She was repeatedly hailed as a hero.

"I have no doubt in my mind that she saved the lives of every last one of us who was on the bus last night," said Deborah McKinney, drum major.

Christensen, 33 and single, was among 46 students and two chaperons on the bus that was on the return leg from Pocatello after a competition at Idaho State University. Three other buses carried the rest of the students and were not involved in the accident.

Though she taught less than two years in the Alpine School District, she was a longtime resident of the city and a graduate of American Fork High School. She was band director at Riverton High School prior to teaching in the valley and made the most of her short time at American Fork. She was the woodwind instructor for the high school band and also taught math. She taught music classes at American Fork Junior High and ran an after-school program for the city's elementary students designed to shepherd promising musicians into the high school's elite band.

"So all of you know, this was her life. We only got to see her once in a while," said sister Laura Christensen, who remembered Heather as always ready with a movie quote, usually from a lousy movie.

"I don't know which was worse, us watching it or her liking it," she said.

The services had moments of levity, but most often soft sobs could be heard throughout the school's gym. The district has had counselors on hand since the band returned around 3 a.m. on Sunday and will continue to make them available through Wednesday when fall break begins.

"This runs deep, this loss," said district spokeswoman Rhonda Bromley.

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