Posted Date: September 18, 2008

Sunshine Royston chose Sept. 20, the day of her late father's birthday, as the day of her marriage.

She was a year old when Chet Royston died in a bike accident in Baltimore.

Now the relatives who had helped put together her wedding are preparing for her funeral.

Royston & six of her friends had arranged to use a stretch limousine for her bachelorette party, which included time at the Power Plant in the Inner Harbor, said her maternal grandfather, Fred Thiess.

About 4:30 a.m. yesterday, a tractor collided with the limo in the 4000 block of E. Monument St., killing Royston.

"Now she is going to be buried more or less the day of her father's birthday," said her stepfather, Jeff Bull, who struggled with grief as he recalled the 28-year-old that he and his wife, Victoria, had raised.

Police said the limousine was traveling east in the right lane on Monument Street at Haven Street. The driver of a 2004 Freightliner tractor-trailer was heading west on Monument Street and as the truck turned left to head south on Haven, it "turned into the left side of the limo," said Agent Donny Moses, a Baltimore police spokesman.

The limousine was knocked on its right side, and came to rest at the southeast angle of Haven and East Monument, police said.

Royston suffered head injuries and was pronounced deceased at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Moses said. Thiess said the other girls were treated at area hospitals. Police did not report any other major injuries.

"Preliminarily, it looks like the tractor-trailer was at mistake for not yielding the right of way," said Moses, who said the accident remains under investigation. Police didn't let loose the driver's name.

Royston had lived for about two years in Dallastown, Pa., with Joe Hillengas, the man she planned to get married Saturday. They had met while growing up in Dundalk and lived in Dallastown to be close to Hillengas' mother. Hillengas commuted to his job at a sheet-metal company in Baltimore, friends said.

One of Royston's buddies had arranged for the limousine for the bachelorette party, said Royston's stepfather.

"They thought they did the correct thing by not going out drinking and driving and presume what? You do the right thing and it still doesn't pay off," Bull said.

Through tears, Bull recalled the "too-short life" of his stepdaughter, who studied from Patapsco High School.

"She was a good girl, a loving mother. She did what she could do for anybody. She was one of the best daughters anybody could have," he told.

In addition to the two children she had with Joe Hillengas, Royston had a 5-year-old son from an earlier relationship, Bull said.