AMESBURY — An 80-year-old local woman remembered as an excellent mother and teacher was killed late yesterday afternoon in a single-car accident on Merrimac Street at Hatter's Point condominium overlooking the Merrimack River.
Longtime Salisbury resident Iora Alexander died when the 2009 Toyota Corolla she was operating went off the road and rolled over down a rocky embankment, striking Hatter's Point condominium, according to Amesbury police Sgt. Kevin Donovan.
Amesbury firefighters had to free Alexander and her two passengers from the car using hydraulic extraction tools. Paramedics rushed Alexander to Anna Jaques Hospital in Newburyport, where she later died.
Her passengers, an 85-year-old woman and a 90-year-old woman, were taken to Exeter Hospital in New Hampshire so that Anna Jaques emergency staff would not be overloaded with patients, Deputy fire Chief David Mathier said.
A regional accident reconstruction team made up of Amesbury, Newburyport and Salisbury police officers are investigating the crash.
Donovan said Alexander was leaving the condominium and turned right on Merrimac Street, heading east toward Point Shore, when the crashed happened at 5:12 p.m. The sergeant said speed was not a factor.
Alexander was a retired elementary school principal in Andover and a former member of the Salisbury Conservation Commission.
Rita Mullis of Amesbury lives at Hatter's Point condominium and had just visited with Alexander.
"It's very sad," Mullis said.
That was the same sentiment from Ken Seifert of Andover, the former Andover school superintendent who appointed Alexander as a guidance counselor and later principal of West Elementary School and Bancroft Elementary School in that town.
"She was filled with life ... She was filled with a lot of energy," Seifert said. "When she felt something, she'd let you know. She had the strength of her convictions."
Seifert retired from Andover public schools in 1990, but he got a surprise invitation from Alexander last year, asking him to attend a reunion at her Salisbury home. The reunion was for former staff members of West Elementary School who worked there from 1965 to 1983.
The first-ever reunion was held in November, and the people who attended were looking forward to making it an annual event.
Seifert didn't know why Alexander went into teaching but imagines it was because of her love of children.
"She exhibited it so sincerely," Seifert said. "She was an excellent mother. She carried her motherly tendencies in the school."
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