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Obituary- Lemon, Harold 3

ToCar-truck collision kills Topeka couple

By STEVE FRY
Capital-Journal law enforcement writer

A Topeka couple driving home from a ballroom dance at a St. Joseph, Mo., civic club were killed early Sunday near St. Joseph when their car and an oncoming pickup truck collided, friends driving ahead of the couple said Monday.

Sgt. Rex Stuart of the Missouri Highway Patrol identified the Tope-ka couple killed in the accident as Harold C. Lemon, 74, and his wife, Frances Lemon, 73. The Lemons lived at 1226 N. Kansas Ave.

The driver of the second vehicle involved in the accident, identified by the Missouri Highway Patrol as Steven Dale Courter, 28, St. Joseph, remained in Heartland East Hospital, St. Joseph, on Monday. Courter was admitted to Heartland East with a laceration to the left eye and bruises on the arms, a hospital spokesman said. Courter originally was thought to have a possible skull concussion but none was found, the hospital official said.

Mike Insco, Buchanan County (Mo.) prosecuting attorney, said Monday that no charges or traffic citations had been filed in connection with the accident. The accident site was in Buchanan County. Insco said Monday that he was awaiting the results of laboratory tests on Courier’s blood. Insco declined to discuss what substance was being tested for.

Stuart said the accident occurred at 1:45 a.m. Sunday on US-59, a two-lane highway, 13 miles south of St. Joseph. The accident occurred about three miles east of the Kansas-Missouri border.

Harold Lemon was driving south on US-59, and Courter was driving a pickup truck north on US-59, Stuart said. The Courter pickup crossed the highway center line, and the Lemon automobile and Courter pickup collided nearly head-on, Stuart said.

The Lemons were dead at the accident scene. The pickup and car
were destroyed in the accident. Courter, who was alone in his pickup, was wearing a seat belt, and the Lemons weren’t wearing seat belts.

Leo and Evelyn Lynn, Nortonville, were riding in a separate vehicle but traveling with the Lemons when the Lemon car and the Courter truck collided. The Lynns and Lemons were friends.

The Lemons had arrived in St. Joseph about 2 p.m. Saturday to attend a ballroom dance at the Moose Lodge in east St. Joseph. “I asked Frances earlier in the evening if they were going to come back to Topeka (immediately after the dance), and she said yes,” Evelyn Lynn said. The dance ended at midnight Saturday.

“(The Lemons) asked us if we would like to get some breakfast at a restaurant” in St. Joseph, Evelyn Lynn said. The two couples stopped at the restaurant to eat breakfast and left St. Joseph about 1:10 a.m. Sunday, Evelyn Lynn said.

“(The Lemons) wanted to follow
us out of town because they didn’t know their way out of St. Joseph,” she said.

The Lynns were driving ahead of the Lemons when the Lynns lost sight of the Lemon car.

The Lynns turned their car around to go back and found the accident.

“It was just a terrible sight. We lost our son-in law three years ago (in a traffic accident). It brought back terrible memories,” Evelyn Lynn said.''

“It looked like the driver’s side of the car had been hit and pushed everything back into Harold. It looked like it killed them instantly,” Evelyn Lynn said. The Lemons remained in the front seat of the automobile.

The pickup, which sustained heavy damage on the front, went off the road and into a ditch, she said. The highway was straight and level at the accident site and had standing water on the pavement. It was lightly raining at the time of the accident.

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