David Wallace was riding a bus to school Friday morning along Interstate 65 when he saw the wreckage from a terrible crash out the window. One of the two cars, he thought, looked like his mother’s.

He soon would learn his mother, Freda Lewter Wallace, 44, of Elkmont was killed in the wreck on Elkton Road.

David, who was on his way to Limestone Career Technical Center, notified his father and was brought home by a teacher, said Nancy Elrod , Mrs. Wallace’s sister.

The wreck occurred at 7:50 a.m., according to a state trooper. Mrs. Wallace was pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver of the second car, Connie Perry, 45, of Athens was airlifted to Huntsville Hospital, where she died later Friday morning, according to Limestone County Coroner Mike West.

Limestone Chapel Funeral Home is handling arrangements for both services.

West said a state trooper, who had pulled over another driver on I-65, witnessed the accident and was the first on the scene.

Both women were wearing their seatbelts and had no passengers in their cars, the trooper said.

Elrod said her sister, whom the family called “Charlie,” was on her way to her job at Wal-Mart when the wreck occurred.

“If you were ever in Wal-Mart, I’m sure you saw her,” Elrod said. “She had a smile and a hello for everybody. She was a wonderful girl.”

Mrs. Wallace’s husband, Ricky, is a truck driver and was on his way home from Pennsylvania Friday after hearing the news of his wife’s death, Elrod said.

David Wallace, a senior at Elkmont High School, will graduate in May.

“She was so proud that her son was graduating,” she said. Mrs. Wallace has another son, Eric, a junior at Elkmont High.

Perry has two daughters, Jennifer Perry Houston and Laura Perry; and one granddaughter Macey Houston.