ST. LOUIS COUNTY • A woman struck and fatally injured by a car while standing in the middle of Highway 367 had stopped to help a motorist involved in an earlier crash, police said Friday.
Shirley A. Johnson, 60, of the 12200 block of Culpepper Drive in St. Louis County, died Thursday morning at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. Police said she had pulled over at dawn Thursday to help at a minor collision in the southbound lanes between Parker Road and Redman Avenue.
Officials said Brittany Anderson, 24, of St. Louis County, was stopped in the highway about 5:30 a.m. after colliding with a car driven by Damion Alexander, 23, also of St. Louis County. The crash sent Alexander’s car into the inside shoulder.
Johnson stopped to help Anderson and was standing outside Anderson’s Toyota Camry when another Camry, driven by 16-year-old Tessie McNair, of St. Louis County, struck Anderson’s car and Johnson, police said.
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Officials believe the initial crash knocked out the tail-lights of Alexander’s car, so Tessie couldn’t see it. Tessie suffered minor injuries.
Anderson, who could not be reached Friday, was treated for non-life-threatening injuries at a nearby hospital.
Tessie “tried to stop when she realized there was something in front of her, but it was too late,” said county police Sgt. James McWilliams. “There were no taillights. This is why she’s not being charged.”
Johnson was an ordained evangelist at her church and a food server at St. Mary’s Hospital, said her son, Cory Carlisle, 37, of St. Louis. He said his mother helped calm Anderson down and had been praying for her when she was hit.
”My mom’s passion was God,” Carlisle said. “That’s what she did. She went to friends and family, letting them know the right way to be. My mom was just a very beautiful person all around.”
Carlisle said his mother was taking theology and social work classes at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park and was planning to start a nonprofit to shelter and help ex-convicts transition to life outside prison.
“She instilled the word (of God) in me,” Carlisle said. “That’s what gives me comfort, knowing that she went home doing what she loved to do, which was helping other people.”
Johnson’s funeral will be at 10 a.m. Nov. 17 at the Gospel Power Christian Church, 7005 Ascension Drive in Northwoods. It would have been her 61st birthday.
