CHAMPAIGN — Three members of a Champaign family killed in a plane crash Sunday near Rantoul are being remembered as vibrant, energetic and generous people.

Champaign County Coroner Duane Northrup said it will be late today before he can confirm their identities, but family friends have said Jon Buerkett, 56; his wife, Dana Buerkett, 47; and their daughter, Morgan Buerkett, 19, were killed when the single-engine plane Mr. Buerkett was flying went down south of the field shortly after takeoff from the Rantoul airport about 9:20 a.m. Sunday.

Tom Fiedler said he and Jon Buerkett co-owned Melody Music in Champaign, a coin-operated music and equipment company where both of them have worked for 39 years.

Dana Buerkett owned her own marketing and advertising business. And Morgan Buerkett, a 2010 graduate of the High School of St. Thomas More, was about to begin her sophomore year at the University of Chicago, where she played volleyball and aspired to be a journalist, according to St. Thomas More Principal Tim Millage. As a college freshman, she played in six volleyball games.

Fiedler said the Buerketts were headed for Florida, where Morgan was scheduled to participate in a camp designed to assess and enhance her volleyball skills.

Fiedler said he and Jon Buerkett began working full time for Fiedler's father at Melody Music shortly after graduating in 1973 from Centennial High School, where Mr. Buerkett was known for his baseball skills.

"Jon was the pitcher. He had an offer to play in the minor leagues, which he declined. We ended up working for my father at Melody. We were 24 or 25 when we bought the business from him," Fiedler said. "In some ways, we're closer than family."

Morgan had played volleyball since her grade-school days at Holy Cross elementary school in Champaign, where her mother was a coach.

Holy Cross Principal Rose Costello warmly recalled the family, including an older daughter Ashley, 26, who survives and works in Chicago.

"Ashley and Morgan both went to Holy Cross. Dana and Jon were very, very nice people. Morgan always had a wonderful smile and was such a nice girl. They were very supportive. Dana coached volleyball at Holy Cross for many years. They were very generous. They purchased brand-new volleyball uniforms for the team," she recalled.

Dan Hennessey, athletic director at St. Thomas More, had similar praise for the family.

"I knew Morgan through volleyball and being an outstanding student and volleyball player," Hennessey said. "Her mom and dad were very gracious to the school and all the kids in the community. They were very active at STM through the athletic booster organization and our gala, our two big fundraisers. They always stepped in and helped. They always attended all sports, not just volleyball."

Morgan, he said, was one of 11 students in her graduating class who went on to play college sports.

Millage called the Buerketts "tremendous supporters of Catholic education" even though they were not Catholic. "They were tremendous supporters of the school — volunteers, can-do people who saw needs and did anything they could to help us progress," Millage said.

A prayer service for the family is scheduled for 5 p.m. today in the cafetorium at the school, 3901 N. Mattis Ave., C.

"It's not a Mass. It's come as you are, for people who might want to stop by on their way home from work," Millage said.

Millage called Morgan a "bright, social kid who was just outstanding at our school. She was a leader in the classroom, a leader on the volleyball court and a tremendous representative for our school. She was very talented and dreamed of a career in journalism."

Leslie Lux of Rantoul said she and Dana Buerkett had been lifelong friends who grew up together in Rantoul. Mrs. Buerkett is the daughter of Vern and Kay Ehler of Rantoul, who are Lux's godparents.

"She was an incredible person with time for people. She did everything. She made it in business, she was a phenomenal mother, an outstanding Christian," Lux said.

Lux said the last two messages her friend sent her on Facebook were to support someone with cancer and to attend an upcoming fundraiser for Roundhouse, a home for runaway children.

Mrs. Buerkett was the president of Dana Buerkett Inc. and had worked in the advertising industry for more than 20 years. She was a graduate of Eastern Illinois University.

Stu Broeren, a friend and longtime business associate of Jon Buerkett, said Mr. Buerkett didn't attend college but was "a very astute businessman and a hard-working guy and self made."

"He was just a great guy. He loved his kids to death and his wife," he said.

Fiedler said he thought the couple had been married about 28 years.

Broeren and Lux both said they had flown with Mr. Buerkett many times. He had his instrument rating and had probably been flying for about 20 years, Broeren and Fiedler said.

"He was way beyond cautious in terms of safety and procedures. He loved to fly and was very judicious about his safety and precautions," Broeren said.

Lux called him "very particular" when it came to flying and said he would not have flown if he thought conditions weren't safe.

"The takeoff went fine. It was a freak line of wind," she speculated.

Police confirmed that severe weather had quickly moved into the area about the time the plane went down.

Fiedler said his friend flew a Piper Mirage, a single-engine aircraft with a pressurized cabin. He rented a hangar at the Rantoul airport for the plane.

Airport manager Bill Clayton said representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board arrived late Sunday afternoon to begin their investigation.

Clayton said the wreckage of the plane would likely be moved to a secure spot at the airfield once investigators were done with their preliminary crash-scene work.