First Place News Writing

Division 10 Small Weeklies

Overton Press

Local woman killed in car, train wreck

By Charlotte Heldenbrand

A local woman was killed in a Tuesday morning car-train collision in Rusk County. A Nissan Altima driven by Wanda Sheppard Henry, 55, was struck by a train at 9:15 a.m. Tuesday and carried approximately 3,600 feet before stopping close to the intersection of Hwy 135 South and Front St., according to the Overton Police Department.

Henry was pronounced dead at the scene. The railroad crossing where Henry attempted to cross had no crossbar. The incident was still under investigation at press time.

Henry, who along with her sister Sandra Jackson worked for the Northeast Texas Treatment Center, a substance abuse treatment facility in Overton, will be missed, according to Jim Lutes, operations manager.

"Wanda's been here since the doors opened (December 1994). She was a super lady; she was just really great. She'd do anything for you. She had a heart of gold," he said. "I've told everybody that Wanda had true joy. No matter whether she was angry or she was happy, she was smiling and had true joy, the joy of the Lord.

"She'd stay here (after work) and play cards or dominos with the residents. They'd have fun imitating her laugh. She'll be really missed by a lot of people."

Henry served as kitchen supervisor at the Treatment Center. "She was an excellent cook. That's the reason our food was so good; she put her heart into it," Lutes said.

He and some center residents were en route to the Overton Community Center when they crossed the railroad tracks near Zion Church and saw the car. "We said, 'It looks like he didn't make it,"' Lutes said. "We had no idea whose car it was. I called Sandra and told her a green car had been hit by a train and she came (to the scene) and then went to Wanda's house and they told her she had left the house at 8:30. Wanda's husband and daughter came and they found out it was Wanda. Now I wonder if I should have called Sandra; I had no idea it would be her sister."

Henry made her daughter Bridget, who graduated from Overton High School in 2005, a priority, according to Lutes.

"She went out of her way to provide what Bridget needed and to prepare her for life," he said. "Bridget doesn't know it yet, but her mother's prepared her."

This is the third incident with fatalities involving trains in less than a year. Arp ISD board President Wayne Roberts was killed Dec. 14, 2005, when he attempted to walk across the railroad tracks in downtown Arp and was struck by a train. Overton residents Mellody Ann Daugherty, 35, and her 11-year-old daughter, Hallie Ann Daugherty, were killed instantly Feb. 12, 2006, when their pickup truck was struck by a train on CR 138, west of Hwy 42.