Pulitzer-Prize winning cartoonist Doug Marlette died July 10 in a single-car accident in Mississippi. He was 57.
Marlette, who lived in Oklahoma, was visiting Mississippi to help a group of high school students mount a musical version of his syndicated comic strip, "Kudzu." He had just delivered the July 6 eulogy at his father's funeral in Charlotte, N.C.
Marlette started his cartooning career in 1972 at the Charlotte Observer, and was currently on staff at the Tulsa, Oklahoma World.
He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. Marshall County coroner John Garrison said he believed the truck in which Marlette was riding hydroplaned in heavy rain before striking a tree.
Marlette was also a novelist, having published The Bridge in 2001 and Magic Time in 2006. His comic strip "Kudzu," which satirized Southern life, was at its peak syndicated in 300 newspapers.
Survivors include his wife, Melinda, and an adult son, Jackson.
