Elizabeth Faulkenberry was remembered this week as Jefferson County's former presiding commissioner who helped modernize virtually every part of county government.

Mrs. Faulkenberry was 78 and lived in Hoene Spring.

"She's an icon in this community," Circuit Clerk Howard Wagner said. "For years she served as associate judge and later the presiding commissioner of the county, and the programs that she helped institute on her watch are just phenomenal."

He ticked them off: sewer districts, a new building for the sheriff's department, road improvements, bridge improvements, a solid waste department, and a sales tax that allowed the property tax to be eliminated for a time.

Mrs. Faulkenberry was killed Saturday morning in a head-on crash of two vehicles near Morse Mill. She had been on her way to have breakfast with one of her three daughters.

The driver of the other vehicle had fallen asleep on Highway B, a two-lane highway, the Highway Patrol said this week.

Mrs. Faulkenberry was behind the wheel of a minivan. She saw the approaching car swerve over the median line and was unable to avoid it, the patrol said.

Injured in the crash were a daughter of Mrs. Faulkenberry, Lisa Faulkenberry of Hoene Spring; and Ben Cytron of Hoene Spring, a close friend of the family and a former county counselor of Jefferson County.

The driver of the car also was injured.

Mrs. Faulkenberry was presiding commissioner from 1986 through 1994, when she retired. She later worked part time in the circuit clerk's office.

She grew up in Eminence, Mo., where her father operated a general store, and graduated from high school there.

In Jefferson County, she was a real estate broker before going into politics.

Former Sheriff Walter "Buck" Buerger called her instrumental in the progress of the county.

"We went from nowhere to somewhere under her," he said.

"When I took over as sheriff, we had just a few deputies. And when I left we had 200." Buerger became sheriff in 1964 and retired in 1992.

He called Mrs. Faulkenberry a good person "who treated everybody equal."

Visitation will be 2-8 p.m. Friday at the Chapel Hill Funeral Home in Cedar Hill. The funeral will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at the funeral home.

Survivors, in addition to her daughter, include two other daughters, Carole Broadfoot of Dittmer and Amy Crader of Eureka; a son, David Faulkenberry of Eureka; and two sisters, Kathryn Carr and Shannon Reary, both of Eminence.