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Valley resident Jackie Earnest, a nurse for Chambers County School District, passed away in a house fire early Thursday morning. The Board of Education sent a press release Thursday evening, in which Superintendent Casey Chambley addressed the loss.

“The Chambers County Board of Education was saddened to hear this morning of the sudden and heartbreaking loss of our coworker, Ms. Jackie Earnest,” Chambley said in the press release. 

Earnest and her husband Larry Earnest were the only people in the house during the fire. At approximately 2:30 a.m. Thursday, Valley Police and East Alabama Fire officers responded to the fire. 

Larry Earnest had escaped through a window. He was treated on the scene and then transferred to EAMC in Opelika. Unfortunately, Earnest didn’t make out of the house. 

Earnest had served as a licensed practical nurse for the Chambers County Board of Education  since Oct. 2017. During those years, she served Five Points Elementary, LaFayette High School, LaFayette Lanier Elementary and Huguley Elementary. 

According to the press release, Earnest served the Huguley Elementary students and faculty the pandemic. She worked there from 2018 to 2020. 

“Ms. Earnest genuinely loved her students,” Chambley said in the press release. “Ms. Earnest always made it a point to try to know every student’s name. She celebrated birthdays with the students, bought them gifts and treated them as if they were her own. The level with which she cared for and about her students was immeasurable.”

In the press release, the Board of Education asked the community to remember Earnest’s family in their prayers for peace and comfort during this time.