Funeral Services Set for School of Music Student, Pending for Graduate

July 31, 2014

Baylor family mourns tragic loss of Jack Stewart and Laura Onwudinanti who died in July 29 car accident and remains in prayer for two injured students


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Contact: Lori Fogleman, 254-710-6275

WACO, Texas (July 31, 2014) -- Baylor University and the School of Music are mourning the tragic deaths of one student and a May graduate who were involved in a one-car accident on Tuesday, July 29, on Hwy 7 near Kosse in Falls County in Central Texas. The accident also injured another Baylor student and an incoming freshman, who are both at Baylor Scott & White Hospital in Temple with serious injuries.

Please continue to be in prayer for the families and friends of John Patrick “Jack” Stewart, who was a junior instrumental studies major from Dallas, and Laura Onwudinanti of Grand Prairie, who just earned her bachelor’s degree in music education from Baylor in May 2014 and was set to begin graduate study at the University of Michigan in the fall. Both died in the accident, which happened as they were traveling to the International Clarinet Association conference at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

A funeral Mass for Jack Stewart will be held at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 2, at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, 9643 Ferndale Road, in Dallas. Sparkman/Hillcrest Funeral Home, 7405 West Northwest Highway in Dallas, is in charge of arrangements.

Funeral services for Laura Onwudinanti have not been set. The University will communicate that information as soon as it is available.

Also continue to pray for the families and friends of the injured students: Jacob “Jake” Hale, a senior instrumental music major from Fort Worth, and Megan Ritzi, an incoming freshman from Fort Worth. They remain hospitalized in Temple.

“The hearts of the Baylor University family and our School of Music are broken as we mourn the passing of these remarkably talented students who have been taken too soon from us,” Baylor President and Chancellor Ken Starr said. “We pray that God’s grace and comfort will surround the families and friends of Jack Stewart and Laura Onwudinanti at this terribly sad hour. We continue to labor in prayer for Jake Hale and Megan Ritzi and for their attending physicians as they are treated for their injuries. We ask that the Baylor family keep all loved ones and friends, and our School of Music faculty, staff and students, in their deepest prayers.”