SIKESTON MAN KILLED IN AUTO ACCIDENT

SIKESTON -- Realtors at REMAX Achievers will have fewer cakes and fewer jokes at their office. Real estate agent Charles Beal, 54, died Wednesday in a car accident on Interstate 55.

Beal, a Cape Girardeau native, was driving home to Sikeston when he was stopped by road construction on the interstate about three miles north of Miner, reported the state Highway Patrol.

The construction was planned by the state Department of Transportation to allow work on a new overpass. The department closed the southbound lanes for 30 minutes at a time from midnight to 5 a.m., and then allowed traffic to pass through.

Beal had stopped his car behind a tractor-trailer driven by Larry Keaton of Zena, Ohio, about 12:20 a.m. But another tractor-trailer driven by Herman Williams, 57, of Decatur, Iowa, was southbound on I-55 and didn't see the other cars until it was too late. Williams ran into Beal, pushing Beal's car into Keaton's tractor-trailer.

Beal was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident.

He had been assistant manager at JCPenney in Sikeston, manager of Wal-Mart stores in Malden and Jackson, and had owned and operated The Shoe Box and Heartland Book Store in Sikeston.

Beal had worked at REMAX for only nine months, but he had made a difference in the office, said Trudy Brandt of REMAX Achievers.

She recalled how Beal was often teased since despite his good nature, he was not married.

He brought cakes with humorous inscriptions to the office once a week, Brandt said.

"He brought a lot of life to the office," she said.