An array of crosses and flowers stood Sunday in front of a pecan tree along a straight, flat stretch of Ala. 188 in south Mobile County. The memorial was to two young women who lost their lives in a single-car accident early Friday morning.

Late Saturday night, Brittany Lea Gates, 18, died at University of South Alabama Medical Center, her family said. Sarah Denise McGuff, 19, who was a passenger in the car Gates was driving, died at the scene, according to Alabama State Troopers.

The memorial to the two Faulkner State Community College students was set up by the tree, about 20 feet from a driveway over a culvert about a quarter mile northwest of Fernland Road.

A preliminary State Trooper report said the Ford Mustang was going northwest on Ala. 188 toward Grand Bay when it left the road, struck the culvert and hit the tree about 2:40 a.m.

Trooper spokesman Cpl. Steve Smith said what led to the accident has not fully been determined but would be released in the coming days. Smith did say, however, that rain moved through the area shortly before the accident happened.

"It could have been anything," said James Gates, Brittany Gates' father. "Only the two of them know for sure what happened."

James and Angelie Gates said their only child finished high school early, in August 2008, through the online home-school program Continental Academy, and she enrolled at Faulkner State at age 17, studying to be a dental hygienist.

They said their daughter had been home-schooled since the beginning of her freshman year in high school.

Brittanny Gates attended Cloverdale Baptist Church along with her parents. Her funeral will take place Thursday at 1 p.m. at the church.

During high school, McGuff was frequently mentioned in the Press-Register's Around Campus student news dispatches, according to the newspaper's files.

A 2008 graduate of Alma Bryant High School, she was a member of the school's yearbook staff and was one of two editors-in-chief of The Surge, the campus newspaper, the files show.

Additionally, she was selected one of the school's Senior Superlatives. The files additionally show that, in November 2001, as a student at Alba Middle School, she was pictured in the Press-Register singing during a dedication ceremony to five schoolmates who had died between 1998 and 2001.

Her Facebook page said she was attending Faulkner State and she planned to attend the University of South Alabama after finishing at Faulkner.

McGuff's page also said she had worked since August at a local day care center.

James Gates said he and his wife made the decision to donate their daughter's organs when she died.

"At least we know, because of her, someone out there is going to have a chance at life," he said.