Every
time I pass through the tiny settlement of Kickapoo in Anderson County, I am invariably
reminded of the colonel--not the one with the chicken--but a man who revolutionized
law enforcement in Texas.
Colonel Homer Garrison,
Jr., had one of the most recognized law enforcement careers in the U.S., culminating
with his leadership of the Texas Rangers and the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Born
at Kickapoo, Garrison graduated from Lufkin High School and went to work for his
father, who was then District Clerk of Angelina County. He took his first job
as a law officer at nineteen, when he was appointed a county deputy sheriff.
His father admonished him for taking the job, telling him: “Son, you’ll never
amount to anything in that dead-end job.” But
1929, Garrison became a state license and weight inspector for the Texas Highway
Department and joined the Texas Highway Patrol when it was organized in 1930.
When the Department of Public Safety was founded in 1935, Garrison became
the first assistant director and was appointed director in 1938.
During
World War II, he was offered
an appointment by General Douglas McArthur to reorganize the Japanese national
police system, but declined in deference to his Texas
job.
When FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was stricken with a serious illness,
President Dwight Eisenhower considered Garrison as his replacement. But Hoover
recovered and Garrison stayed in Texas.
When
Garrison died in 1968, the Texas Rangers and the Department of Public Safety were
entrenched as one of the most efficient police organizations in America. During
his lifetime, Garrison always remembered his Lufkin
roots and visited here often. A brother, Pitser H. Garrison, served as Lufkin’s
mayor for eighteen years.
Bob
Bowman's East Texas
August 28, 2010 Column, modified September 30, 2012
A weekly column syndicated
in 109 East Texas newspapers
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