First female NY trooper to die on duty remembered

CLARENCE, N.Y. (AP) — The first female New York trooper to die while on duty was remembered Tuesday for her grace, humor and professionalism as family, friends and law enforcement officers gathered for her funeral.

A long procession of police cruisers escorted the hearse carrying Jill Mattice to the Eastern Hills Wesleyan Church in Clarence, about 20 miles northeast of Buffalo. Pipers played and two long ranks of somber, gray-uniformed fellow troopers saluted as an honor guard wheeled in her flag-draped casket.

It took mourners almost a half hour to file into the church hall, where Gov. David Paterson said in his eulogy that children in the schools where Mattice was assigned as a resource officer “adored her because of her bubbly personality.”