Kudzu Cartoonist Killed in Auto Accident

On Tuesday, July 10, 2007, Doug Marlette, the Pulitzer Prize Winning cartoonist, died in an auto accident in Mississippi.

Marlette was visiting Mississippi to assist a group of high school students who were putting together a musical version of his comic strip "Kudzu."

He had just given a euology at his father's funeral less than a week before his death.

Marlette was the passenger of the pickup truck driven by John P. Davenport.  Davenport was the theater director at Oxford High School.  After the accident, he was treated at Baptist Memorial Hospital - North Mississippi in Oxford and released.

The accident occured due to heavy rains.  The truck hydroplaned and hit a tree.