The state's first female African-American SLED agent has died of breast cancer at age 45 in Ohio, South Carolina friends and former colleagues said Friday.

Gloria Gethers Byrd, born at Fort Jackson, died Tuesday in a Cincinnati suburb, said longtime friend Capt. Steve Norris, of the State Law Enforcement Division's internal affairs.

Byrd was aware her 1983 hiring at SLED broke ground at the state's top police agency, but she never considered herself a trailblazer, Norris said.

"Gloria was not that type of person," said Norris, who worked on a fugitive task force with her. "She was just a good employee. We never looked at it as black and white."

But to Patty Patterson -- the second black woman SLED agent -- Byrd was a trailblazer.

"She was a professional peacemaker,'' said Patterson, who made her mark two years ago becoming Sumter's first female police chief and its first African-American police chief.

Byrd and Patterson were close at SLED. They worked sexual assault and child abuse cases together, shared office space and were roommates. They were more like sisters than co-workers, Patterson said.

Before going to SLED, Byrd had investigated food stamp abuse and Medicaid and welfare fraud for the state Social Services Department, said spokesman Jerry Adams.

Late-Chief Pete Strom hired the 1979 USC graduate away from Social Services, Patterson said.

Current Chief Robert Stewart was a lieutenant at the time and remembers Byrd as energetic, outgoing and professional. "We were really sad to see her leave SLED and even more sad to hear of her passing," he said Friday.

Byrd left SLED in June 1990 to work in the security division of the McDonald's hamburger chain in Ohio, Norris and Patterson said.

Byrd was a supervisor for security over restaurants in a large region of Ohio, Norris said. She took a medical retirement from the restaurant chain, Norris said.

Funeral services in South Carolina are scheduled for 1 p.m. Monday at Mt. Carmel AME Church in Moncks Corner, followed by burial at the town's Westview Cemetery.