Pendley portrait unveiled at USC

Brett Flashnick
AP

Michael Amiridis (left), dean of the USC College of Engineering and Computing, Associate Dean Michael Perkins (right) and Howard Pendley, father of Cassidy Fae Pendley, unveil a portrait of the former student Thursday.

The University of South Carolina unveiled a portrait Thursday of Cassidy Fae Pendley, one of seven students killed in a beach house fire in North Carolina last year.

The 18-year-old North Charleston resident was a freshman chemical engineering student at USC. She was a 2007 graduate of Fort Dorchester High School.

The memorial portrait is in the Reading Room on the first floor of the Swearingen Engineering Center.

Also, Pendley's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Howard A. Pendley II, have established the Cassidy Fae Pendley Memorial Scholarship in Engineering Fund.

According to Howard Pendley, "We are doing this as a means of keeping our daughter's spirit alive." The first scholarship recipient is Stephanie M. Johnson, a biomedical engineering major from North Augusta.

Five other USC students and one Clemson University student died in the blaze on Oct. 28, 2007, in Ocean Isle Beach. All seven students died from smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide poisoning.

Six students survived the fire.