Lexington County Correctional Officer To Be Inducted Into Hall of Fame

A Lexington County Detention Center correctional officer who died of heart failure while on duty will be inducted into the South Carolina Law Enforcement Officers Hall of Fame Wednesday. 

Kimberely Shaye Harrison is one of seven South Carolina officers whose names will be added to the 's Hall of Fame Memorial Room honoring more than 200 fallen officers. 

Harrison died at the age of 34 in 1999 when she collapsed of heart failure, according to the Lexington County Sheriff's Department. 

She is the first female to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, said Marsha Ardila, administrator of the Hall of Fame. She will also be the first person to also join a spouse in the Hall of Fame. 

Harrison was the widow of Sgt. Thomas Clyde Harrison, who was shot and killed on January 15, 1993 while he was on duty as a law enforcement officer with the Orangeburg Department of Public Safety. He is also in the Hall of Fame.

Lexington County Sheriff James R. Metts said he will join Harrison’s mother and siblings at the induction ceremony. 

Yvonne Walker, Harrison's mother, said even though it's been 13 years since her daughter's death, she still feels the pain of the loss. 

“I think about Shaye every day,” Walker said in a statement. “I appreciate her fellow officers remembering her. I want to thank everyone who was involved in making this honor for Shaye possible.”

Harrison began working at the detention center on Oct. 18, 1999, according to the sheriff's department. 

Six other officers also will be inducted into the Hall of Fame: three who died in 2011 and three who died in previous years, Ardila said.

Inductees include: 

• Samuel T. Tobias, a magistrate's constable who died in 1899 in Clarendon County
• Ralph W. McCracken, who died in 1931. He was the first South Carolina highway patrolman to die on duty. 
• Charles L. Freeman of the Aiken County Sheriff's Deparment, who died in 1990
• Charles Richard “Chuck” Nesbitt Jr. of the Sumter Police Department, who died in January 2011
• Roger Dale Rice Jr. of the Laurens County Sheriff’s Office, who also died in 2011
• Edward Scott “Scotty” Richardson of Aiken Department of Public Safety, who died in December 2011
  
  

The induction ceremony will take place at 2 p.m. in the South Carolina Law Enforcement Hall of Fame Memorial Room at 5400 Broad River Road. 

A public memorial ceremony honoring all officers who died in 2011 will be held at 11 a.m. in the Criminal Justice Academy gymnasium.