POPLAR BLUFF COUPLE KILLED

POPLAR BLUFF -- A Poplar Bluff couple was killed Sunday when their pickup truck collided with a tractor-trailer truck on Highway 67, nine miles south of Poplar Bluff.

Harry Nelson, 80, and his wife, Jewell Nelson, 79, were pronounced dead at Doctors' Hospital in Poplar Bluff. The driver of the tractor-trailer truck, Eldon Bryant, was also taken to Doctors' Hospital, where he remains in serious condition.

A Missouri Highway Patrol spokesman said that Bryant's truck crossed the center line and struck the Nelson vehicle head on. All persons involved were wearing their seat belts, the spokesman said.

The accident marks the seventh fatality worked this year by Missouri Highway Patrol Troop E in Southeast Missouri.