Elizabeth, 15, and Blythe, 12, were not seriously injured. Police said the girls and their parents were wearing seat belts. The driver of the other vehicle also survived the crash. The family dog, a schnauzer named Fritz, was hurt but is expected to live.
Neighbors on Patrick Avenue in West Chester were stunned by the news. One woman burst into tears and asked, "Both of them?"
Family members on Wednesday remembered the couple for their dedication to their daughters.
"Rick worked hellish hours, but he always had time for the kids when he came home," said Robert Hazard, one of Kristin Holmes' two brothers. "When they were 2 and 3 and 4, he would come home and get on the ground and play the fantasy games with the dolls and the little animals."
Kristin Holmes, who as a child shunned Barbie dolls and favored red cowboy boots, taught her girls to be strong and independent.
"They're just really self confident, caring little people," Hazard said of his nieces. "They don't exclude people or pick on the weak kids.
"The quality of their children just shows what good parents they were," he added.
The couple met in Chicago when Richard Holmes was an aspiring actor. He once played the emperor in The Emperor's New Clothes but was too bashful to go naked, said his older brother, Robert Holmes.
"Instead, he wore boxer shorts with red and white polka dots," Robert Holmes said.
Kristin Holmes had moved to Chicago after spending a year in Wyoming helping to construct an oil refinery, said Hazard.
Both ended up studying business and found jobs in sales. Richard Holmes worked most recently for Mercury Solar Systems, a company headquartered in New York with offices in Philadelphia that sells and installs solar panels.
