URBANA — For her entire adult life, Terri Burnett couldn't move most of her body. But the words that came from her mouth moved more people than she ever could have realized.

Left a quadriplegic after being hit by a drunken driver in 1981, the 49-year-old Urbana woman shared the story of her life countless times with people in an attempt to prevent them from driving after drinking alcohol.

"The good that she did speaking on victim impact panels — I don't know how we ever measure it," said Bill May of the Champaign County probation office, who helps find speakers for the panels.

Miss Burnett died Tuesday at Provena Covenant Medical Center from complications associated with her quadriplegia, according to her mother, Jeanette Burnett.

"I was her right arm and she was mine," said her mother, who also acted as a personal assistant to her daughter. "She was very smart. The doctors said (to her) 'You got a big heart and a good brain.'"

Martha Brown of St. Joseph, a member of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said Miss Burnett had been part of the court-ordered victim impact panels for so long, she couldn't remember when Miss Burnett began helping but believed it was in the 1990s.

People who have been convicted of driving under the influence are usually ordered, as part of their sentence, to listen to the stories of victims and perpetrators whose lives have been affected by drunken driving.

"She was talking to people in the audience from their viewpoint," said Brown, who added that Miss Burnett never billed herself as a victim.

Fellow panelist Bryan Dunn of Lerna, who caused a death by driving drunk, said he loved Miss Burnett's courage and sense of humor. Often talking after she did, Dunn would tell the audience that she was a hero, a label that made her uncomfortable.

"She wasn't anything special in her own eyes. She was just another person trying to tell her story. People always came up afterwards to thank her," Dunn said.

At a 2002 presentation to students at Champaign's Central High School, her alma mater, Miss Burnett told of how drunk the woman was who hit her car in Campustown. A friend of Miss Burnett's was actually driving her car when it was hit.

Not wearing a seat belt, Miss Burnett, then 19, was thrown forward into the windshield, then back into her seat. The driver who hit her opened the door and said she hoped Miss Burnett had good insurance. She reeked of alcohol, Miss Burnett recalled.

For a long time she was angry at the woman and her own situation. She realized she didn't even have the ability to end her own life. Ultimately, she let go of that anger, which she told her mother was "living rent-free in her brain."

"What a hypocrite I was to judge the person driving the Camaro because I had done the same thing she had done," she said, explaining how she frequently drank beer while driving on weekends as a teen.

"She had such an impact on those high school kids because she let them know she was one of them," said Patty Metzler, a Carle Hospital emergency nurse who was a frequent co-panelist with Miss Burnett. "Even though she was much older than them, she spoke to the fact they're still doing the same thing she did."

Brown recalled how Miss Burnett, who had the use of her arms and shoulders up until about seven years ago, would talk of the basic trials of being confined to a wheelchair.

"She used to talk about when she would be with her mom at the grocery store. She would stay in the van ... and would see people leave their carts wherever, figuring someone else would take care of them. She would tell them, 'I would give anything to be able to move that cart back to where it belongs.' You could see people in the audience react, people who obviously had left carts sitting around in a grocery store parking lot and never thought about it," Brown said.

Jeanette Burnett said her daughter was able to live in her own home for about 20 years with assistance. For many of those years she worked. One job involved answering phones for a sewer service.

She also volunteered at the Urbana-based PACE — Persons Assuming Control of their Environment — in the 1990s before eventually working her way into a paid position in 1999 for the independent-living organization.

"She worked in our personal-assistant program. She assisted people with disabilities such as herself to get help in their homes so they could remain in their homes," said Nancy McClellan-Hickey, executive director of PACE.

"Terri was no-nonsense, straight to the root of the problem, very practical in figuring out solutions and very well-liked. She had a good sense of humor, had us laughing. She loved sports, especially NASCAR. That was her passion," said McClellan-Hickey.

"She really accepted her disability over time and helped others accept theirs and even have disability pride, we call it," McClellan-Hickey said.

McClellan-Hickey credited Miss Burnett for starting the "Pull for Access" program at PACE. A consumer came up with the idea to recycle aluminum pop top tabs for cash to be used for folks who need adaptive equipment for their homes but can't pay for it.

"Her mother was a big part of that, too. They'd haul cans to recycle even after Terri left her position here," McClellan-Hickey said.

Miss Burnett left PACE in 2004, the same year that severe neck and arm pain forced her to undergo surgeries that eventually robbed her of the limited use she previously had of her arms and shoulders.

Jeanette Burnett brought her daughter back to her home to live after that. Terri was able to get around in her wheelchair by manipulating with her chin a device that her mother described as a "joy stick fastened to a vest." A computer with special programming also assisted in many facets of her daily life.

"Just in the last year, she got on Facebook," her mother said.

Dunn said his friend had a dry sense of humor and didn't take herself too seriously.

"Even with all the problems she had, she could still be ornery," he said.