Gaston Co. Sheriff’s Corporal Kate Self Laid to Rest

GASTONIA, NC – People lined the streets of Gastonia as the procession carrying the body of Corporal Kate Self passed under a giant American flag. Self died tragically three weeks ago. Family and friends laid her to rest after remembering her at a Celebration of Life.

“How can you not smile, when you think of Kate?” asked Sheriff Alan Cloninger. The Sheriff says nearly every time he saw Corporal Self, she was smiling.

“She always made it fun in a world of evil and a world of pain,” Cloninger says.

The Sheriff told hundreds gathered at First Assembly of God that Self had a servant’s heart and that she made everyone’s day brighter.

“Would Kate not want us laughing? Would Kate not want us to smile? Because that young lady enjoyed life,” the Sheriff said.

Corporal Self died after police say her father, Roger Self, drove an SUV into the Surf and Turf Lodge in Bessemer City three weeks ago.

Her sister-in-law Amanda Self was also killed.

One of the most emotional moments came when Self’s fiance spoke. Many people in the congregation began to cry as Alex Burns got choked up talking about her.

He told them the time he knew Kate was the best time in his life.

“To this day, so far in my life, Kate’s the only woman that’s ever really accepted me, for exactly what I am. She never wanted me to be anything different,” Burns said.