‘She was full of love.’ Phenix City pays tribute to officer who died of COVID in 2020
On what would have been their second wedding anniversary, Eddie Gilliam remembered his wife, Phenix City assistant police chief Gail Green Gilliam, as a firm but loving woman, who always put family first and loved her community.
“She was full of love,” Gilliam told the Ledger-Enquirer. “There is nothing she wouldn’t do for anyone. She took her job seriously — she was firm, but she would take every necessary step to help.”
“Today is, of all things, our wedding anniversary,” he added. “Our marriage was short but I assure you, it was lovable. She was a true angel.”
Gail Gilliam, 56, who had been employed by the Phenix City Police Department since 1988, died from COVID-19 complications on June 24, 2020, at Piedmont Columbus Regional.
Phenix City Chief of Police Ray Smith said Tuesday that the loss has been hard on the department over the past 10 months.
“We’re coming up on a year and it’s going to be tough,” Smith said. “But, I have Eddie and her family to lean on and help each other get through this.”
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, alongside Smith, presented the Gilliam family with an award and declaration for Gilliam’s service to the community at Martin-Idle Hour Park Community Center in Phenix City on Tuesday afternoon.
Gilliam was one of eight officers in the state of Alabama who died while in the line of duty in 2020. Five officers died in the line of duty and the remaining three passed from COVID-19.
“When our office receives any news of this sort, it’s a significant loss,” Marshall said. “As the chief law enforcement officer of this state, I have a strong connection to the men and women who protect and serve our state. Just to work in law enforcement, herself, means that she (Gilliam) wanted to make a proactive change and positive change in others.”
Gilliam will be memorialized at a state ceremony in Montgomery this May and at the State Officers Memorial in Anniston, Alabama.
This story was originally published April 28, 2021 at 10:17 AM.
