"Kansas" cannot merge

I am attempting to perform a mail merge on Word 2003 using an HTML table as
the source document. A field starting with "KS" will not merge.

Consider the following HTML table:

HTML
HEAD
META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=UTF-8"
/HEAD
BODY
TABLE
TRTHTEST/TH/TR
TRTDKS 666111434/TD/TR
/TABLE
/BODY
/HTML

Use the mail merge wizard to create a mail merge. At step 3, browse to the
HTML file created above. In the preview dialog, the "KS" is missing, and
only the "666111434" shows up. Completing the merge results in only the
"666111434" in the final document.

Strange things to try:
--Change the "KS" to "KY" in the data row and the correct value, including
the KY, will appear.
--Create a second data row in the table exactly like the first and neither
"KS" shows up.
--Create a second data row in the table with "KY 666111434" instead: now
the "KS" and "KY" both show up

Any suggestions? This appears to be a problem reading the table, as the
"preview" shows the wrong values before the merge even occurs.

Thanks!