Two worn trooper badges and a folded American flag are among the only things Brenda Sealy Sumner has to remember the father she never knew. She was just 16 months old when SC Highway Patrolman Albert T. Sealy Jr. was killed in the line of duty in October 1950.
She also has a bag in which she keeps some of his personal effects like his wallet, and some post cards he received while serving in the Navy during World War II.
“That’s about all I have left of him,” she said. “I look at them sometimes. I think about him often, and wonder what my life would have been like if he had been here and was a part of it.”
Sealy was 23 years old and had only been a patrolman for a couple of years when he crashed head-on into a tanker truck during a pursuit in Greenville County on October 5, 1950, killing him instantly. He was the 14th South Carolina state trooper to die in the line of duty.
On Friday, more than 75 years later, his tragically short life and service were commemorated with the state of South Carolina dedicating a portion of SC-183 in his memory. The section of highway between Sulphur Springs Road and Ridge Road in Greenville County is now the SCHP Patrolman Albert T. Sealy Jr. Memorial Highway. Road signs were unveiled during a ceremony Friday afternoon.
“Honor is not a currency that loses its value with the passage of time. It does not have an expiration date,” SC Highway Patrol Colonel Christopher Williamson said. “Whether a trooper died in the line of duty a year ago, or 75 years ago, each one laid down his life in service to this state. And I am pleased that we can recognize Patrolman Sealy’s service and sacrifice today.”
Sealy wasn’t the only law enforcement officer in his family. His brother, Marion Eugene Sealy, who went by Eugene, was also a patrolman. Eugene’s son, Gene, grew up to be a police officer and the longtime chief of the Forest Acres Police Department in the Midlands until his retirement in 2022.
“My memory from what my dad said was that he and Albert joined the Navy when they were young, probably 17 or 18 years old,” Chief Sealy said, adding that after returning from the war, the brothers had no desire to go work in the mills in their hometown of Great Falls, as most people there grew up to do.
“They looked into becoming highway patrolmen,” he said. “They signed up and got hired and went to Patrol School around 1948 or 1949.”
Eugene was assigned to Richland County, and Albert to Greenville County, he said. But Albert Sealy’s service came to an abrupt and tragic end on the night of October 5, 1950.
The General Assembly passed a concurrent resolution in 2024 renaming the portion of the roadway in Sealy’s honor. A framed copy of the resolution was presented to Brenda Sealy Sumner during Friday’s ceremony.
“It means a lot to me, just to know that they’re recognizing my daddy,” she said. “I think it’s really nice.”
The ceremony took place at Berea First Baptist Church, just over a mile from where Sealy died. Looking back, Chief Sealy believes his uncle’s death in the line of duty prompted his father to leave the Highway Patrol.
“When he and my mom married in 1951, it would have been not even a year after Albert was killed,” he said. “That probably gave him a little shove, and my mom may have encouraged him to do something safer as well.”
Over the course of his nearly 50-year law enforcement career, Chief Sealy has seen his share of line-of-duty deaths, including two Forest Acres officers. The naming of the highway in his uncle’s honor is appreciated, he says, whether motorists passing the sign knew him or not.
“There will be some people that still appreciate his service,” Sealy said. “They won’t know all the details, but obviously he died right in that stretch of road while serving, doing his job and trying to protect the community. Whether it is a highway patrolman, a sheriff’s deputy, or a police officer — they were out performing a job that can be detrimental to their welfare. Each one went to work knowing they might not come home that day.”
