shawn.mcgrath@heraldbulletin.com

The former owner of the Elwood Dairy Queen died earlier this week in a two-vehicle collision in north-central Colorado.

Nancy Dudley, 67, Lyons, Colo., died Wednesday after the 1996 Ford Mustang she was driving collided with a semitrailer loaded with dry cement.

Colorado State Patrol Master Trooper Ron Watkins said Dudley was driving westbound on Highway 66, about four miles west of Longmont, shortly after 10 a.m. when she drifted into the oncoming lane.

Dudley drove into the path of an eastbound 1997 Kenworth tractor-trailer driven by 59-year-old Jimmy Bearden, Grand Junction, Colo.

Dudley was pronounced dead at the scene, Watkins said. Bearden was uninjured.

It wasn’t immediately known if drugs or alcohol were factors in the crash, Watkins said, and investigators await the results of toxicology tests. He said the road where the crash happened is strait and flat, and the collision remains under investigation.

Dudley had lived her entire life in Elwood before moving to Colorado in 2006. She had owned the Dairy Queen at 1920 S. Anderson St., Elwood, for 20 years, according to officials with Dunnichay Funeral Home, which is handling arrangements.

Longmont is about 20 miles of north of Denver.