Two killed in Oxford head-on collision

The North Carolina State Highway Patrol said Maria Dann, 50, was leaving Stovall-Shaw Elementary School in Oxford shortly before lunchtime when Valerie Corsaro, 35, crossed over the center line and hit Dann head-on.

Speed was not a factor in the crash, investigators said, and they are unsure why Corsaro might have crossed the line.

Corsaro was a health unit coordinator at Duke University Hospital who loved animals, her husband said.

Dann had spent two years working for Granville County Schools as a curriculum coach working on a literacy program. She had just left the school where she had been reading to students.

Granville County Schools spokesman Stan Winborne said that grief counselors were on hand Friday at three schools where Dann worked.

"There are a lot of people who are having a difficult time coping with it," he said. "She was a wonderful person – positive, always had a smile on her face."

Family members said Dann also had taught second grade at Ravenscroft School in Raleigh for 12 years and had devoted her life to children. She and her husband married in June.