Friends, Family Mourn Cobb Educators Lost To COVID-19

COBB COUNTY, GA — The loved ones of the three Cobb County School District educators who died of COVID-19 gathered this past Saturday to mourn their deaths, celebrate their lives and remember them.

Friends and family of Patrick Key, Dana Johnson and Cynthia Lindsey congregated in the parking lot of McEachern Memorial United Methodist Church on Saturday evening for a vigil, the Marietta Daily Journal reported. Key, Johnson and Lindsey each taught in the district for years.

Key, an art teacher at Hendricks Elementary School, died Christmas Day. Johnson, a first grade teacher at Kemp Elementary School, and Lindsey, a paraprofessional at Sedalia Park Elementary School, died in January — on the same day, hours apart from each other.

RELATED: 2 Cobb County Teachers Died Of COVID-19 Thursday

The district launched the mass vaccination of its staff March 19. Some at the vigil said it was too late.

“Unfortunately, for our colleagues who have fallen to COVID-19, not in time. Not in time,” said Gregory George, one of the teachers who organized Saturday’s vigil, according to the MDJ. “That’s nobody’s fault, it’s just the nature of the situation we’ve been given.”

Cobb Schools Board Chair Randy Scamihorn and board members Brad Wheeler, Tre Hutchins and Charisse Davis attended the vigil, as well as state Reps. Erick Allen (D-Vinings) and Erica Thomas (D-Austell), according to the MDJ. Superintendent Chris Ragsdale spoke at the beginning of the vigil.

Read more on the Marietta Daily Journal's website.