A house fire in the city of Oxford and a vehicle wreck on Interstate 55 in Copiah County claimed the lives of two Warren County natives Thursday.

Patricia Wilkerson, 54, formerly of Vicksburg, died from injuries received in the fire, and Richard L. Whatley, 48, of Redwood, died in the single-car wreck.

Wilkerson lived near Oxford’s Square, in a home that firefighters found fully engulfed in flames when they responded shortly after midnight, authorities said.

She was taken to Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi in Oxford, where she was pronounced dead at 1:51 a.m., said Lafayette County Coroner Rocky Kennedy. No foul play was suspected, but an autopsy was pending, he said.

Another woman in the house, Frances Brown, age unknown, was reportedly also taken to Baptist Memorial Hospital and later transferred to another facility. Her condition was unknown this morning.

Whatley, who was driving a 1997 Honda Accord, was northbound on I-55 near the Wesson exit when he was killed at about 1:30 p.m., said Mississippi Safety Highway Patrol spokesman Sgt. James Walker. Whatley was wearing his seatbelt, and no other vehicles were involved, Walker said.

“It appears from the information at the scene that he left the roadway to the left, or west side, of the highway,” said Copiah County Chief Deputy Tony Hemphill.

There was no indication of what might have caused Whatley to veer off the road, Hemphill said.

Copiah County Deputy Coroner Dr. Rick Akin attributed the death to blunt force trauma.

Richard Fortune, who lived near him on Whatley Hollow Road in Redwood, said his cousin performed maintenance on offshore oil rigs and worked seven-days-on, seven-days-off shifts. He was on his way home, Fortune said.

“His niece had talked to him about 10 o’clock and he said he’d be back in Vicksburg around 3,” Fortune said. “And then we find out that he’s died. It was real sad.”

Whatley was looking forward to getting home and spending some time this weekend with his two sons, his niece, Mitzi Clark said today. “Whenever he needed anything, he always called me,” she said.

Fortune said Whatley had attended Warren Central High School and enjoyed hunting and watching sports, especially the New Orleans Saints.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

Wilkerson also attended WCHS, graduating in 1974, said her mother, Nell Wilkerson of Vicksburg. She had also attended the University of Mississippi and moved to Oxford in July 2007, renting what she called an efficiency apartment, Nell Wilkerson said.

“She was real sweet to me,” Nell Wilkerson said. “Anytime I got sick or needed her she dropped everything and came back to help me.”

Patricia Wilkerson had been on the staff of the Small Business Development Center at the University of Mississippi since last summer, said Robert Forster, associate state director for the center.

Forster also knew Wilkerson from St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Oxford, where he said she was involved in “the ministry of feeding people.”

“She was always in the kitchen with a big smile on her face,” Forster said. “If there’s a kitchen in heaven, she’s there today.”

During her years in Vicksburg, Wilkerson had attended Christ Episcopal Church and Bovina Baptist Church.

In the 1970s, Patricia Wilkerson worked for The Vicksburg Evening Post and also at Waterways Experiment Station, her mother said.

Funeral arrangements will be handled by Glenwood Funeral Home.