Danielle Barrett came to school May 1 with her hair dyed in a rainbow of colors.

Steve Larkin, principal of Fillmore Community High School, asked the teen "if she'd gotten hit in the head with a paint truck."

Never one to miss a beat, Danielle told Larkin, who is bald, "At least I didn't get hit in the head by a weed whacker." That quick rejoinder was vintage Danielle, Larkin said. "She always had a great sense of humor."

Little did Larkin know that the 16-year-old would die that same day after being thrown from her sport utility vehicle while driving north of Fillmore on a rural road.

Danielle's friends and family will gather on the beach at 11 a.m. today at the foot of Seaward Avenue in Ventura to remember the teen's all-too-brief life.

Danielle, known to her friends as "Dani," would have wanted them to come together to remember her near the ocean. "She absolutely loved the beach and the ocean," said her mother, Carrie "Angel" Ruise.

Born Aug. 1, 1991, in La Mesa, Danielle was part Native American, belonging to both the Kumeyaay and Coushatta tribes. She was also part Italian, and was proud of her mixed heritage, her mother said.

Generous in spirit, Danielle "would give the shirt off her back to someone in need," Ruise said.

"She was my best friend," Ruise said.

Rick DeCicco, one of Danielle's teachers at Fillmore Community High, said she had moxie and "knew how to act with adults."

"She was confident and talented," DeCicco said. "She knew what she wanted to do in life and was ready to get on with it."

Danielle was scheduled to graduate in June. She already had started attending Ventura College, where she was studying dance.

On the day of her death, DeCicco remembers Danielle asking him if he would attend a college dance performance, in which she had a part.

"She didn't get to live long enough to be in that performance," said DeCicco.

DeCicco instead went to Ventura County Medical Center in Ventura that night, where Danielle was hanging on to life. Her mother remembers a doctor saying Danielle likely would not make it through surgery.

"I told him not to give up on my baby," Ruise said, and her daughter did make it through surgery. "The doctor was amazed."

But the trauma of the accident and surgery eventually proved too much for her daughter, Ruise said. "Her heart stopped. They worked to get it started for 22 minutes, but they couldn't," she said.

The California Highway Patrol said Danielle's SUV veered across Grand Avenue and overturned several times. Danielle was ejected from the vehicle and suffered head trauma and internal injuries. Three other teens riding with her suffered cuts and scrapes, the CHP said.

Ruise said Danielle had just gotten her driver's license and was good about wearing a seat belt, but for some reason she was not wearing it when the accident occurred.

The Ventura College Dance Department is dedicating the show "Gold," in which Danielle was to have performed, to her memory. The show was Friday evening and will be performed again at 8 p.m. today and 3 p.m. Sunday at the college's main theater.

"She was a lot older than her years," said grandmother Roberta Rickard Andrino, recalling how Danielle loved to travel with her, especially to New Orleans, a city she loved for its history, food and culture. "She was always, always her own person."