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An Uncommon Friendship
James R. May, Oologah Lake Leader
WINNING COLUMN-May 2002
It was a long time in coming but come it did. The telephone call that I did not want to receive arrived on a Thursday evening. Chief O'Byrne Cox was dead. A veteran of two years of combat in Italy, a forty-year veteran of the Dallas County, Texas Sheriff's Department and my partner laid down his shield for the last time. His wife asked if I could come to his memorial service. It was the least that I could do for one who had risked his life for me on many occasions.
On a spring Saturday in Dallas, I stood by Mrs. Cox, the epitome of a gracious southern lady. We talked of the loss to both of us. Mrs. Cox fell in love with the Chief when she was fifteen years old. When World War II came to its exhausting conclusion, the two married and began a partnership that was to last sixty years, six months and six days. Chief Cox worked in the campaign of Bill Decker, the legend that was elected and remained the unopposed sheriff of Dallas County for thirty-nine years. O'Byrne went through the ranks from campaign worker to Chief Deputy.
As I was serving as a police intelligence officer, I came to know and respect Chief Cox. When the Dallas Organized Crime Task Force was organized, he selected me to be his partner. I thought no greater honor could happen to me. We spent several years working routine cases as well as some of the major cases in Texas. O'Byrne was always at my side, teaching, guiding and protecting me. It is something that a police partner does. No questions asked.
Last Saturday, Chief Cox honored me one more time. Shortly before he died, he parked a small box and told Mrs. Cox that it was for me. It was a box filled with treasured from my partner. They are hard to see through the tears. There was the pistol that had protected me, rank insignia, a name tag, and most important of all, the glittering and untarnished Shield of the Chief Deputy Sheriff of Dallas, Texas–a treasure beyond price.
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