She died of the disease on June 30, 1988, at the Chandler Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky, at age 27. She was buried on her 28th birthday at Cunningham Memorial Park in St. Albans, West Virginia. The Miss West Virginia Scholarship Pageant established an annual award "The Melanne Pennington Quality of Life Award" in her memory. She was appointed a "Distinguished West Virginian" by Governor Arch A. Moore, Jr. posthumously in 1988.
