A 26-year-old NIU student, described by family and friends as deeply religious and fond of children, died Friday in an Elburn car accident.

Tabitha McKee, a first-year nursing student, was killed in a collision with a Buick LeSabre while driving her silver Saturn SUV at 10:30 p.m. on Hughes Road. McKee somehow had swerved into the other lane and collided with the LeSabre driven by Anne Own Craft, 40 of St. Charles, said Leslie McKee, Tabitha’s sister and roommate.

Craft was taken to Delnor Community Hospital in Geneva.

McKee’s service will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday in the Faith Assembly Church in Elburn. Leslie said her sister was actively involved in the church and gave to others. Tabitha had taken two trips to Mexico – most recently this past Christmas – to help those in need.

“She didn’t even spend Christmas with the family, because she really wanted to build houses for families who didn’t have one,” Leslie said. She also loved children and wanted to have some of her own.

“There wasn’t one baby in the church that she hadn’t cuddled,” Leslie said.

Tabitha’s love of children even slowed her progress through Waubonsee Community College, from which she graduated in May. She worked full time for the past six years as a nanny for Lisa and Gary Thrun’s two children, Alexandra, 13 and Nicole, 6.

Holly Theis, also a first-year nursing student, often had lunch with McKee and said she was very quiet, always positive and “one of those angels on earth.”

Despite McKee’s “heavenly” nature, her sister said she had a wild side.

McKee had been whitewater rafting twice and took a repelling course at Waubonsee. During her first attempt at repelling, McKee put on the belt improperly, flipped upside-down and had to be lowered.

But the setback didn’t deter McKee.

“She paid $100, so she said she wanted to get her money’s worth,” Leslie said. She went three more times with the same class.

Leslie also said her sister joked that the nanny job was “just a cover.”

“She always teased us and said she was a spy,” Leslie said. Her favorite television program growing up was “MacGyver,” who used mundane items to manufacture devices to help him get out of dangerous situations.

“When she was little, she had a picture of Richard Dean Anderson [MacGyver] in her wallet,” Leslie said. Continuing her kinship to the fictional spy, McKee was known among her friends to be able to fix anything.

“My ex-roommate is here, wondering who’s going to change her broken furnace,” Leslie said.

Following Tuesday’s service, McKee will be taken to her parents’ home in Tennessee where she will be buried.