Retired Army Col. George John Stapleton, 78, died Nov. 8 after a long battle with cancer. His wife, Lynell Stapleton, left St. Simons Island before dawn Tuesday for the long drive to the U.S. Military Academy, where her husband was to have been buried at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday with full military honors, family friends said.

An SUV hit a guardrail and went down an embankment on Inter­state 95 in Walterboro just before 6 a.m., said Trooper Jud Jones of the South Carolina Highway Patrol. The vehicle overturned, killing the driver and injuring three passengers, who were treated for minor injuries, Jones said.

Jones said only the Colleton County coroner could identify the driver, but Arlie McNeill of Edo Miller and Sons Funeral Home in Brunswick said he had been notified that Lynell Stapleton had died in the crash.