A Fayette resident and her mother died in a two-vehicle automobile accident Thursday in West Virginia and the driver of the other vehicle faces charges of drunk driving.

According to an article in the Martinsburg (W.V.) Journal, Mary Kempf, 68, of Fayette, Ohio, and her mother, Edna Nofziger, 91, were rear-seat passengers in a vehicle driven by Kempf’s brother, Sandford Eash, of Wauseon.

The family members were returning from a funeral in Virginia when a minivan crossed the center line and struck their vehicle on West Virginia Route 9.

When questioned about the incident, police report that minivan driver Darrell Russ fell asleep and later stumbled down an embankment. After failing three sobriety tests, he was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol.

Linda Eash, the fourth person in the passenger vehicle, was hospitalized at Westchester Medical Center.

An obituary for Mary Kempf appears in this week’s Observer.