An Imperial man and a St. Louis woman who recently died in a wrong-way crash on I-55 in St. Louis were kind people, said Ruth Ann Adams of Pevely, who knew them both.
Ralph Morse, 74, of Imperial and Dawn Tampow, 63, of St. Louis died in the accident, which happened at about 7:45 p.m. June 27 on northbound I-55 near Gasconade Street, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department reported.
Tampow was driving a Kia Soul in the wrong direction on the interstate when she ran into a Chevrolet Corvette Morse was driving. It is not known why Tampow was driving southbound in the northbound lanes, and the accident was still being investigated as of Monday, July 7, according to the St. Louis Police.
Adams, a ReMax Best Choice real estate agent, said she met Morse when she handled the purchase of his Imperial home in 2010. Adams said Tampow married her former husband, Keith Ott, after Adams and Ott had divorced.
Adams said Tampow helped raise her and her former husband’s two children, who are now grown, adding that Tampow was not married to Ott at the time of the accident.
“(Tampow) was a very sweet person,” Adams said. “I always knew she had the best of intentions at heart. She was just a very kind person.
“(Morse) always had a big smile on his face. He always was very kind.”
Morse loved music
Morse was well known throughout the area for his love of music. He was often seen wearing a top hat and music-theme T-shirts at concerts and other musical performances in the St. Louis area.
Morse had been an Air Force avionics technician for 24 years, retiring in May 1994, according to his obituary.
“Ralph was just a good dude,” said Jerry Jost, a guitarist for the Urge band, the Joe Dirt and the Dirty Boys Band and the John Hughes Experience. “He was a true lover of live Rock ’n’ Roll. You could just see the joy on his face whenever he would go out and see a band, and he would go out and see everybody.
“As a musician, whenever he would show up, we would all perk up a little bit and step up our game. We were like, ‘Let’s bring it for Ralph.’ He was into it for sure, and those are the types of guys you love to play for.”
When Adams helped Morse with his home purchase, he presented a spreadsheet of about 100 homes he wanted to look at before buying a house. Morse quickly toured nearly all the homes on his list before settling on the Imperial home, which she said he loved.
“I have on my wall a postcard he made,” she said. “It says, ‘Dream home in Imperial, $170,000. Property taxes, $1,300. Closing costs, $3,200. Working with Ruth Ann Adams, priceless.’ He hand delivered it, and it had a picture of his home on the hill.”
Adams said Morse’s home was destroyed when a tornado tore through Jefferson County on March 14, and he lost his collection of music memorabilia along with his home.
“He had collections of everything,” she said. “The night the tornado hit, he was at a concert. He said it took him forever to get home because of the destruction.”
Adams said Morse asked her to sell the land where the home had stood because only the front wall of the house was standing after the tornado. The land was sold on June 20, and when Morse showed up at the title company, he said he was going to drive to Las Vegas in his Corvette for a concert.
She said he returned to the St. Louis area on June 23 to collect the check for the sold property.
“He told me about his trip and how awesome it was,” Adams said. “He told me about the collections he lost and said, ‘All of that is just stuff. I am living life to the fullest. I am going to live forever.’ He started to shake my hand, and I said, ‘No, you don’t. Give me a hug.’ He gave me a big hug, and that was the last time I saw Ralph.”