VICTIM DESCRIBED AS AN ACHIEVER

SCOTT CITY, Mo. -- Few people could keep up with Jessica Arnzen between her club meetings, sports and cheerleading activities, her campaigning efforts for area Republican candidates and a couple of part-time jobs she worked during the summer.

Her friends said Jessica, 17, knew what she wanted and worked to achieve it, whether it meant winning a club award or a volleyball championship for Scott City High School. She was so remarkable that a member of the Blue Angels, the Navy's precision flying team, will attend her funeral. The two were pen pals for years.

Jessica told her friends they should all be closer, spend more time together and make it a memorable senior year.

And now, they say, they will.

Jessica Arnzen died in a traffic accident Tuesday morning not far from her home outside Scott City. She was rolling toward another full day at Scott City High when her car ran off the road and overturned.

Hundreds of friends and relatives are expected at her wake at 5 p.m. today at the Scott City High gymnasium. Family members didn't want to hold the visitation at the church because they weren't sure everyone could fit into the building.

It seems that nearly everyone knew Jessica.

"A funeral home would be just too crowded," said her father, Erv Arnzen.

The family received condolences from state Sen. Peter Kinder and U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson. Jessica had worked on Kinder's election campaigns; her family and the Emersons are friends.

Kinder, who spent the past year helping teach Jessica to debate, said he was devastated by news of her death.

"She was just irrepressible and so good natured," he said. "I helped her with this subject and that, but not nearly as much as she helped me with her warm smile and support."

Her current and former teachers were among those who gathered at the Arnzen family's home as news of the accident spread.

"I don't imagine she ever turned anyone down who asked for something," business teacher Martha Nothdurft said of Arnzen. "She was the kid you'd tell you needed something done and you never had to worry about it again. It was just done the next time you asked."

Friends sat in a semicircle on the floor of the Arnzen's living room at midafternoon flipping through photo albums and looking at pictures of Jessica. Most listened intently as her parents told stories about their daughter.

Lana Arnzen, who teaches sixth grade at Scott City Middle School, recalled how as a little girl Jessica had wanted to play ball in the yard one afternoon.

"She had a bat and wanted to play ball, but she was always so tiny that the bat was much bigger than she," she said. "I told her she had to choke up on the bat, and she held the bat out and started coughing on it."

For nearly eight years Jessica was a pen pal of Navy Cmdr. Larry Packer, a pilot for the Blue Angels. Packer visited Cape Girardeau during a 1992 air show and agreed to be Jessica's pen pal. Her father, also a pilot, helped introduce them during a pilot's party at the show. She sent him a letter and the two began corresponding regularly. He even flew into town in summer 1995 to watch her play softball.

Jessica had traveled alone to see Packer and his family in Oregon two years ago, but the trip was a little scary for her, Lana Arnzen recalled.

She had instructions from her mother to talk to a stewardess should she have questions during the flight, which didn't involve changing planes. However, flight plans changed and Jessica's flight was consolidated with another scheduled flight. There was great confusion when she told flight attendants "she couldn't get off the plane because she wasn't supposed to get off before getting to Oregon," Lana Arnzen said.

The change in flight schedules made for a crazy trip that let Jessica see "nearly all the western U.S.," her father said. She returned unscathed after her visit.

Jessica's classmates remembered her as the person who always brought snacks for bus trips and weeks at camp.

"She always brought food wherever she went," said Ashley Wiggins. She and Arnzen were both cheerleaders on the varsity squad at the school and played volleyball.

Despite all those snack cakes and junk food, "she always said her mom packed vitamins for her to take" while the girls were at camp," said Tara Phillips, another friend and classmate.

A fund for donations has been established at Union Planters Bank. Money collected will help pay for a new flagpole at the school's football field.