A Vicksburg native was among eight people killed in a Dec. 26 tour bus crash in southern Egypt, and services are set for next week, at 11 a.m. Friday, at Bayview Baptist Church in San Diego.

Jean Clay Byrd, a retired teacher who had been living in San Diego, was with other tourists headed from Aswan to the temples of Abu Simbel along Lake Nasser when the bus ran into a sand truck parked on the side of a one-lane desert road. She was 66.

Byrd was born in Vicksburg in 1944 and graduated from Rosa A. Temple High School. After attending Jackson State and Alcorn State universities, Byrd moved to California and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from San Diego State University.

“She was a very outgoing person,” said Bobbie Bass of Vicksburg, Byrd’s freshman year roommate at Alcorn and longtime friend. “She was the type of person who loved people, especially children.”

Byrd had been to Africa twice, and the trip to Egypt was her first, Bass said.

“She went everywhere, and she wasn’t afraid,” Bass said, adding the two were to see each other next year at their 50-year class reunion.

Byrd taught at Silver Gate Elementary in suburban Point Loma when she retired about four years ago. She was a volunteer math teacher in the area after retirement, and taught Bible study while also doing volunteer work to help the homeless.

She is survived by a son, Jason Byrd, of San Diego; a daughter, Donielle Byrd, of Houston; five sisters, including Joyce Joiner, of Vicksburg; two brothers; numerous friends; and the Rosa A. Temple class of 1962.

Memorials may be sent to the Byrd family, 5988 Old Memory Lane, San Diego, CA, 92114.