‘A shining light.’ Worker in Richland County Sheriff’s Department dies of COVID-19

Adrian Blakely-Phenizy, a member of the Richland County Sheriff’s Department, has died due to COVID-19, Sheriff Leon Lott announced Monday.

Blakely-Phenizy, 55, tested positive for the coronavirus on April 11 and was hospitalized the next day. She died April 23, less than two weeks later.

“I knew Adrian long before I was sheriff,” Lott said in a statement. “I watched her grow up in the Sheriff’s Department.”

She had joined RCSD in the 1980s, left for a few years back, and recently rejoined the department in 2020 as a data control specialist.

“We were happy when she returned. She was always smiling and making people laugh,” Lott said.

Her supervisor in the records department, Sgt. Catherine Smith, said Blakely-Phenizy “started every day with a grateful heart,” adding she “lit up the room and her death has left a void that cannot be replaced.”

She is the second employee the department has lost to the virus since the pandemic began.

Earlier this year, Terry Joel Barrett, who first worked as an investigator but later returned as a chaplain, died as a result of COVID-19, The State reported. He was 69 years old.

This story was originally published April 26, 2021 at 9:13 PM with the headline "‘A shining light.’ Worker in Richland County Sheriff’s Department dies of COVID-19."