One of Albemarle’s finest has been laid to rest.

Cindi Norris Rinehart, a sergeant detective with the Albemarle Police Department, succumbed to stage IV breast cancer Saturday after a diagnosis one year ago. A funeral was held Tuesday at Open Door Baptist Church in Richfield. Burial followed in the church’s cemetery.

Rinehart, 53, had taken a leave from APD to fight the disease that had plagued the women in her family for the past 18 years. She had already passed the exam to become a police captain.

“Not only was she a good officer, she was a good person who always put others ahead of herself,” said Danny Bowen, Albemarle police chief. “She was as good a person as you’d ever meet.”