Local Singer Killed in Car Wreck

Local singer, Melanie Wilkinson, was killed in a collision on Monday at the 2200 block of East 51st Street, just east of Waterbrook.  Ms. Wilkinson had performed for Ann Richards, Lady Bird Johnson and Barbara Jordan and was scheduled to sing in Washington with a choral group at the National Cathedral in the next few days.

She was leaving her job as an overnight 911 call-taker at Austin’s Combined Transportation, Emergency and Communications Center when the wreck happened.

Austin police spokesman Cpl. Scott Perry said a man was driving a Chevy Tahoe east on 51st Street about 11:45 a.m. when he crossed the center line and hit Wilkinson’s silver Toyota Yaris, heading west.  The Tahoe flipped over the Yaris, hit a telephone pole and then rolled off the Yaris.

The Tahoe driver, Dewayne Maupin, 32, was arrested on existing warrants of delivery of a controlled substance and theft by check.

Note:

This article was updated to reflect that Ms. Wilkinson was driving a Yaris and not Corolla (as reported by her brother, Carl James Thor Wilkinson).