
DATE: Saturday, August 16, 1997             TAG: 9708160282

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY STEPHEN KIEHL, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   90 lines

HUSBAND AND FRIENDS STUNNED OVER DEATHS OF 3 IN CAR CRASH PORTSMOUTH FAMILY WAS RETURNING FROM S.C. VACATION WHEN TRAGEDY STRUCK.

Kenneth Lee Pearson was still shaking Friday afternoon from the loss of his wife and children, who died Thursday in a collision on Interstate 85 in Durham.

Surrounded by bouquets of flowers and family photos in his Mount Hermon home, Pearson, 38, said he and his family were driving home from a four-day vacation at Carowinds in South Carolina when ``everybody started stopping all of the sudden.''

The accident began when a Buick caroomed off a guardrail on a bridge, spun across the road and collided with a van. As cars began piling up behind the wreck, Pearson said, he stopped to avoid hitting another vehicle, and then a tractor-trailer rammed into the back of his car.

The Pearsons' car was pushed into a van and then shoved under the trailer of another truck. The accident, which ultimately involved six cars and five tractor-trailers, sent seven people to hospitals.

Lavoris Pearson, 36, and daughters, Shanice, 7, and Shavonne, 5, were killed. Kenneth Pearson, who escaped with minor injuries, was saved by his air bag, police said.

After being treated at Duke University Medical Center, Pearson was picked up Thursday evening by friends from his church and driven back to Portsmouth.

The Mount Hermon community reacted with shock and sorrow as news of the deaths spread Friday. The girls were described as always polite and well-behaved, and the mother was remembered as a wonderful caregiver for her family.

At the Mount Hermon Joseph E. Parker Community Center Friday, the neighborhood children played table tennis and pool and other games as usual, but a tinge of sadness hung in the air.

Many of the children knew Shanice and Shavonne. The girls went to the center at least twice a week for cheerleading. Whitney Barner, 7, was in Shanice's first-grade class at Mount Hermon Elementary School. The two often played together at Whitney's house.

``We were good friends,'' Whitney said. ``We played kickball at school, and we went out back to swing or play ball.''

Velma Copeland, the center's supervisor, said Whitney came to her Friday morning with tears in her eyes.

``She put her arms around me and asked if I had heard about it,'' said Copeland, 56. ``She said, `I can't believe it. I cried when I heard.' '

Copeland coached cheerleading with Lavoris Pearson. She said they hoped to get uniforms for the girls for the first time this year and to participate in local parades.

The center will likely put up a plaque in memory of Lavoris Pearson and her daughters, Copeland said.

Lavoris Pearson worked nights in the admissions office at Portsmouth Naval Hospital. She was active in the Mount Hermon Elementary School PTA. She and Kenneth had been married for 10 years.

The girls, less than two years apart in age, were best friends, said their grandmother, Annie Pearson.

``The oldest one tried to be like a momma to the 5-year-old, trying to make her do things like grown-ups would do,'' she said.

Shanice, who would have entered the second grade at Mount Hermon Elementary, was an excellent reader and was in the gifted and talented program, the grandmother said. Shavonne was excited about starting kindergarten.

``They loved riding bikes and swimming pools,'' Annie Pearson said. ``They loved church and Sunday School. They were a very religious family.''

Charles and Novella Mingo, the Pearsons' next-door neighbors in the 2500 block of Hickory Street, said the Pearsons were like family to them and that the girls would play with their grandchildren when they visited.

``The oldest child would share her classroom experiences with me,'' said Charles Mingo, 78. ``She would bring over her books and papers from class.''

Novella Mingo, 74, said she had known Lavoris Pearson since the late '70s, when Lavoris and her mother moved in next door.

``I'm deeply hurt as a mother would be,'' Novella Mingo said. ``I figured she took me as a mother after her own mother passed. I would keep both of the girls when she went to PTA meetings . . . It's a great, great tragedy.''

According to a report by the Raleigh News and Observer, Durham County police were still investigating the cause of the accident, and charges are not expected to be filed until next week. ILLUSTRATION: Lavoris Pearson, 36, at left, and her children, above,

were victims in Thursday's accident in Durham. The girls are

Shanice, 7, left, and Shavonne, 5, who are shown in a family photo

taken last Easter.

Firefighters in Durham, N.C., work Thursday at the scene of a wreck

in which the car carrying Kenneth Lee Pearson and his family was

demolished. His wife and two children died. Eleven vehicles were in

the crash on I-85 at Cole Mill Road. Seven people were taken to

hospitals.

ASSOCIATED PRESS KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT TRAFFIC FATALITIES