FAIRPORT, N.Y. -- Law enforcement personnel from through the greater Rochester area paid their final respects Monday to Maureen Chisholm. The Fairport police chief died Jan. 17 after a 12-year battle with leukemia.

Chisholm spent more than three decades in local law enforcement, most of them with the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.

"I was fortunate enough, when Andy Meloni retired, to promote her to major,” said Monroe County Sheriff Patrick O’Flynn.  “She headed up our road patrol and did a great job.  This is obviously a sad day but what a beautiful and fitting tribute to see the turnout."

Chisholm was the first female to reach that rank, but retired from the sheriff's office after being diagnosed with leukemia.  Following cancer treatment, Chisholm looked to get back into police work and in 2008 was sworn in as police chief in Fairport. She was the first woman to lead a department in Monroe County, further cementing her legacy as a trailblazer.

"I came on as a sheriff's deputy with Maureen,” said Captain Lorri Strem, Rochester Police Department. “She was a road patrol, I did a few ridealongs with her and she was phenomenal, an excellent cop and at the time there weren't many female officers.

“Maureen made me feel that I can do this job and she's been an inspiration for me all through my whole career."

In their eulogies at the Church of the Assumption in Fairport, Chisholm's friends and former colleagues told stories of how she was a tough cop that got the job done, but they also told of her caring side.

In 1996, she did all she could to help a young deputy, who in1996 was shot during a routine traffic stop in Henrietta.  Drew Forsythe is now the chief deputy of the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.

"At the time, she was my captain at B Zone where I worked,” Forsythe said. “When I got hurt, she was there for my family, my parents, my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, so she meant a lot to me and my family."

When Father Ed Palumbos said Chief Chisholm lived her life with integrity and courage, he was not only talking of her professional life, but also the way she dealt with cancer that can be an example for others to follow.