5 people die in crash in eastern Mo.

FARMINGTON, Mo. -- Three people headed home from a high school reunion and a couple returning from a prayer service were killed in a head-on collision on an eastern Missouri highway that was the site of another deadly accident a day earlier.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol said the five were killed late Saturday night when a car crossed the center line and collided with another car on Missouri Route OO, a two-lane highway with no median southeast of Farmington.

A day earlier, a teenager was killed in an accident about a mile away on the same highway.

St. Francois County Coroner Jim Coplin said there were no skid marks and no witnesses to Saturday's crash, which happened in an area surrounded by wooded farmland. One of the cars caught fire, but the flames didn't reach the victims.

The patrol identified the victims as Bessie Barker, 59, and her husband, Walter Barker, 57, both of Farmington; Norma Holloway, 60, of Arnold, Mo.; and Yvonne Fulton, 46, and her husband, Gregory Fulton, 48, both of Farmington.

The patrol said the Barkers and Holloway had attended a high school reunion earlier in the evening in nearby Madison County. Holloway had parked her car at the home of the recently married couple and driven with them, he said. Their car was the one that was driving the wrong way on the highway, according to the patrol, and they were pronounced dead at the scene.

The Fultons were returning home from a prayer service at Harvis Christian Centre in Park Hills. They were taken to hospitals, where they died Sunday morning.

Dale Stringer, a pastor at Harvis Christian Centre, said the Fultons were elders at the church and helped care for 30 families, a job that included visiting them in the hospital when they were sick.

"They were both wonderful at that," he said.

As the church's parking lot and hospitality director, Gregory Fulton was known to meet worshippers with umbrellas when it was raining and helped carry diaper bags for young parents with babies, Stringer said.

"He was very friendly, very hospitable," Stringer said. "That was what he was. That was his personality."

The couple is survived by two adult daughters.

In Friday's accident on Route 00, a girl was killed when she pulled out of a driveway for a mobile home park and drove into the path of a pickup truck, the coroner said. Follis & Sons Funeral Home identified the girl as Fallon N. Foss, of Fredericktown.