‘Family and her church were her life’: Jasper Co. kindergarten worker dies of COVID
Colette Fogle, a kindergarten paraprofessional at Royal Live Oaks Academy of The Arts and Sciences in Hardeeville, died Sept. 23 of COVID-19 complications. She was 52 years old.
Her death was first reported in-depth by the Jasper County Sun-Times. According to Fogle’s obituary, she “enjoyed caring for her sheep, pigs and her chickens,” and was an avid member of Red Dam Baptist Church, working with the church’s youth.
“Her family and her church were her life,” the obituary reads.
Fogle’s family held a memorial service for her on Sept. 27, and asked that donations be made to Red Dam Baptist Church in her honor.
At her Hardeeville charter school, Fogle served as the treasurer for the parent-teacher organization, which put out a tribute video in her honor Thursday.
“We appreciate all you did and were for our students and school, and we will never forget you,” the video caption read.
Fogle is at least the third Lowcountry educator who has died of COVID-19. Terry Wisdom, a Gateway to Technology teacher at Bluffton Middle School, died earlier this month; in September of 2020, Margie Kidd, a first-grade teacher at Ridgeland Elementary School, died of COVID-19 complications.
According to school-level COVID data from South Carolina’s Department of Health and Environmental Control, Royal Live Oaks Academy has recorded 81 confirmed or probable COVID cases and 224 quarantines this school year.
The school has an enrollment of about 650, according to S.C. Department of Education report card data.
Royal Live Oaks Academy is a public charter school, and is separate from Jasper County School District, which has gone in and out of fully-remote learning this school year as the county has logged record-breaking COVID case numbers.