The Kentucky State Police said goodbye to Sandra Schonecker Taylor, a trailblazer who became the department's first female trooper more than four decades ago.
The Covington native entered the KSP academy in 1977 and graduated in January 1978.
KSP is working to ensure her memory lives on, passing down a brass button and hat pin Taylor wore to the top woman currently on the force. Right now, they're worn by Captain Jennifer Sandlin.
"I know that she was given that in the academy," said Sandlin, captain of KSP post 13. "I know what that meant to her, because I know what that meant to me when I received mine. And that that's the button that she wore when she worked the roadways, you know, when she arrested someone, when she wrote a ticket or when she comforted somebody on a scene, that's the button she wore on her uniform and it was significant for me to wear it over my heart."
KSP said Taylor passed away in January after an extended battle with multiple sclerosis. At the time of her death, she was living with her husband in Florida. She was laid to rest at Vine Street Hill Cemetery in Clifton on Saturday.
