5/12/2005 Living in Memory: Slain peace officers to be remembered in ceremony at courthouse

Capt. Kenneth Kirkwood displays a photograph of Sgt. Robert Robinson, slain on duty Dec. 23, 1962.
Daily Sun photo/DAUN EIERDAM


By DAUN EIERDAM Daily Sun Staff

Peace officers from five counties will gather on the courthouse lawn Monday afternoon to honor fellow officers who fell in the line of duty.

Among those being honored will be Corsicana Police Sgt. Robert G. (Bob) Robinson, who was shot and killed during a traffic stop near the old V’s Cafe on State Highway 75 on Dec. 23, 1962.

Next week, May 15-21, is National Police Week. National Police Memorial Day is Monday, when officers all across the nation participate in ceremonies similar to the memorial at the Navarro County Courthouse.

The local ceremony will honor all officers killed in the line of duty in Navarro, Limestone, Freestone,
Henderson and Hill counties, including nine Navarro County lawmen.

In addition to Robinson, those Navarro Countians include:

• Gideon Taylor, superintendent of the Navarro County Farm, shot and killed Aug. 26, 1894, by two drunks riding around in a buggy.

• Charlie Maddox, a Corsicana police officer shot and killed Aug. 2, 1904, by the prisoner he was escorting to jail.

• A.H. Hanks, a deputy constable shot and killed June 26, 1912, by a 15-year-old escapee from the Navarro County Farm.

• Ves Arp, a Corsicana police officer shot Jan. 6, 1924, while serving a warrant on bootleggers on North 11th Street. He died Jan. 10, 1924.

• Larry Hobson and K.C. Winn, Department of Public Safety troopers, killed during a motor vehicle accident on East Highway 31 near Corsicana Dec. 2, 1973.

• A.F. (Burto) Burden, a Kerens police officer, and Onis Cook, a night watchman in Kerens, who died in a motor vehicle accident Jan. 29, 1984.

The memorial service is set to begin a 5:15 p.m. Monday. It will include an invocation by B.F. Risinger, the CPD chaplain; the National Anthem, sung by former CPD officer Greg Riddle, now serving with the Fort Worth police; opening remarks by Ferman Carpenter, chaplain for the Department of Public Safety; closing remarks by County Judge Alan Bristol; a closing prayer by David Hale, chaplain for the Navarro County Sheriff’s Office; a reading of the roll of the fallen officers by G.M. Cox, chief of the Corsicana Police Department; a 21-gun salute and Taps, played by Les Grayson.

The Corsicana/Navarro County 100 Club, a police benevolent society, will pass out flags during the ceremony.

Officers from the four other counties who will be honored Monday include:

• Ricky Ward, a Mexia police officer shot and killed Aug. 2, 1993.

• Lewis W. Dickson, a DPS trooper and a Navarro County native, killed in a motor vehicle accident April 17, 1949.

• Freestone County Sheriff J.B. Rogers, killed in 1872.

• Freestone County Constable Bragg Dunbar, killed in 1916.

• Tim Willard, a Special Texas Ranger, killed in 1928.

• Sgt. Stephen Davenport, a Limestone County deputy sheriff, killed May 2, 2002, in Hamilton County while serving a search warrant.

• Harry Dunlap, Limestone County sheriff, shot and killed in 1955.

Peace officers expected to attend the memorial include police officers from Corsicana, Frost, Blooming Grove, Rice, the Corsicana ISD and Navarro College; NCSO deputies and constables; DPS troopers and the county’s Texas Parks and Wildlife game wardens.

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Daun Eierdam may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected]

 

Originally published in the Corsicana Daily Sun
May 13, 2005
Reprinted with permission of the Corsicana Daily Sun
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