One light into two

In the area of West Virginia where we lived, there was an extended view to the southern horizon.  Just before dark, we (my mother, sister, brother, my mother's niece and myself) were standing in the yard talking and just looking at a clear evening sky.  We noticed a bright light (about double the brightness of Venus) streaking from the south to north.  It appeared to be very high in the sky.  Just as it got nearly overhead, the (light) divided into two lights and each turned abruptly, one east, the other west.  The turn was immediate, not in a slow arc as you would expect.  Each object then disappeared over the horizon...one east the other west.  We knew we had seen something, but didn't understand what it could have been.  The speed at which this object moved was not dissimilar to the speed of a meteor, and the objects were gone in a matter of seconds.  From where we lived, the view was probably 10 miles in either direction.
Date is approximate.  PD