FLORENCE – A veteran educator at a public school in South Carolina died on Monday of COVID-19 complications, officials said – more than a month after she tested positive for respiratory disease.
Marlene Evans was in the middle of her third year as a kindergarten teacher at Virtus Academy, a licensed public school in Florence County, when she hired COVID-19 in early December.
On December 29, Evans was placed on a ventilator at McLeod Regional Medical Center, WPDE-TV reported for the first time.
Evans died Monday night around 10 pm. She was 59 years old.
She is at least the fourth educator in the state of Palmetto to die after contracting COVID-19.
Prior to her most recent position, Evans spent more than three decades working as an educator in public schools in South Carolina.
At Virtus Academy, which is overseen by the Charter Institute in Erskine, officials said in a statement that Evans’ “love of teaching and passion for helping students took her back to the classroom” after her retirement.
Before contracting the virus, Evans personally taught a group of Virtus kindergarten students five days a week. His last day in the classroom was on December 3rd. At that time, the school chose to switch all students to online education only during winter holidays, as a precaution, said Ashley Epperson, a spokesman for the Charter Institute in Erskine.
Cameron Runyan, superintendent of the Charter Institute, said there were no other cases of COVID-19 reported in Evans’s classroom before her diagnosis and that she is believed to have contracted the virus while out of school.
“Mrs. Evans lived with her heart in her sleeve and it showed in her classroom,” said Virtus Academy acting director Brittany Hamilton in a statement. “Every child who had Mrs. Evans as a teacher felt the love of a true mother and the passion of a dedicated teacher. Her legacy of love and passion for helping students will live at Virtus Academy.”
Evans would do anything to help a child learn or feel included, said Melissa Nettles, Evans’ sister-in-law.
Evans and her husband were adoptive parents of teenagers before having their own children, Nettles said.
“She touched so many lives,” said Nettles. “She was a great personality, very receptive and generous. It was fun to be around her and stop what she was doing and help anyone who needed her.”
Virtus Academy will have counselors available to students and staff.
As of Tuesday afternoon, there were five active cases of the virus associated with students and staff who tested positive during the winter break, Epperson said. All individuals are quarantined.
Contact Jenna Schiferl at 843-937-5764. Follow her on Twitter at @jennaschif.