The head cook at a Vicksburg taco restaurant was killed in a one-vehicle accident Wednesday on Interstate 20 in Hinds County.

Adrian Walker, 53, 405 Cindy Road, died after a tire on the vehicle, in which she was believed to have been a passenger, blew out, causing the driver to lose control a mile west of Bolton, said Mississippi Highway Patrol spokesman Warren Strain. The wreck happened at around 4:30 p.m.

Walker had worked at Taco Casa in the Memorial Plaza shopping center at Indiana and North Frontage Road for about eight years. Rowdy Nosser, who owns the restaurant, said Walker was more than an employee to him.

&#8220She was there every day and took a lot of pride in what she did,” Nosser said.

&#8220I lost a friend,” he said. Employees &#8220don’t work for me. We work together. She was part of the family I tried to create here. I feel like one of my family is gone.”

Nosser, who operates two Taco Casa restaurants in addition to Rowdy’s Family Restaurant on Mississippi 27, opened the Memorial Plaza location with Walker every morning and said that helped them create a bond.

&#8220We went through a lot of stuff together,” he said.

Annie Carson, who worked with Walker for seven or eight years, said she was someone who would &#8220keep you laughing.” She had a serious side, too, though.

&#8220She was always turning her hand to do something for someone in distress,” she said.

Another co-worker, Leoda Sims, said everyone called Walker &#8220Big A” because &#8220she always got things straight.”

&#8220She was like a big sister and a good friend,” she said. &#8220She was a strong person. She didn’t give up. She was a good wife and a good mother.”

Strain didn’t know who else was in the car with her. Walker was going with her grandson, Monty Jackson, whom she reared after her daughter’s death, to register him for classes at Jackson State University when the wreck occurred.

Robbins Funeral Home has charge of arrangements, which had not been made this morning.

Hinds County Coroner Sharon Grisham-Stewart was not available this morning to say whether an autopsy would be performed.