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CANON CITY, COLO. -- The entire town of Canon City came together to mourn the loss of a young life.

Seventeen-year-old Samantha Gaunt died Sunday morning after she lost control of her car near 4th street in Penrose and hit a tree.

Gaunt was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said she wasn't wearing a seat belt.

Friday afternoon more than 1,000 people gathered to remember the Canon City teen who had a bright future.

So many people showed up for the funeral, roads had to be shut down and some people couldn't even get inside the church - a sign of how many lives Samantha, better known as Sammi, touched.

"It's so great that she could bring so many people here for her," classmate Ashley Barber said. "It's all of us together, and you know she will always be remembered in our thoughts."

Once the church was filled with people, they filled the hallways and then spilled outside.

"It's hard, it's really hard, but she was a great person, and she's remembered by that, and it will always make us happy to know that we knew her," Sammi's teammate Keilah Herndon said. "She left a great legacy,"

A talented softball player and bright student, Sammi had already been accepted to the Colorado School of Mines and had made the softball team.

"Loud, independent, beautiful, she was a great person," Taylor Ford, another teammate of Sammi's, said.

Friends said Sammi had one volume: loud, and could always bring a smile to your face.

"She always made you feel happy inside, even if you were having the worst day of your life, she always somehow found a way to make you happy," Herndon said.

Friends and family brought pink flowers and wore pink bows in honor of Sammi's favorite color.

"We are a close community, and you know we care about our people and we come together and we love each other," Barber said. "It's not a big city here, it's small, but just that one person can bring all these people here."

Herndon agreed.

"It's sad," Herndon said. "We all want her back, but she's in our memory, and she'll always stay there."

Sammi leaves behind her parents, a sister, and a young man who her family said was going to be her husband.

A memorial fund has been set up in her name at the Rocky Mountain Bank and Trust.

Donations will be given to the Wounded Warrior Project and other charities Sammi was involved with.