A 50-year-old Manning native was killed Monday morning when he and his 50-year-old wife slammed head-on into a tractor trailer in a North Carolina field.
Anthony Howard and Donna Tisdale Sherman, herself formerly of Oakboro, North Carolina, died about 11:05 a.m. in the wreck on Renee Ford Road in Monroe, North Carolina, according to the N.C. Highway Patrol.
The Stanley News and Report of North Carolina reported that the couple were traveling north in a 2004 Buick when they encountered a southbound tractor trailer driven by Maurice Z. Gillespie, 29, of Wingate, North Carolina, N.C. state trooper A.C. McLester said.
Gillespie allegedly crossed the center line, drifting his 2005 Freightliner off the left shoulder of the road. McLester said Anthony Howard Sherman then steered his car off the right shoulder, in an apparent attempt to avoid the wreck, and then hit the 18-wheeler head-on in a soybean field.
The couple, who were trapped in the car, were pronounced dead at the scene.
McLester said charges for Gillespie are pending. He said nearly 30 hours passed before contact was made with the couple's family, who live in South Carolina.
Graveside services for the couple are planned for 2 p.m. Friday in Cedar Grove Baptist Church cemetery in Kingstree, directed by Williamsburg Funeral Home of Kingstree.
