BATESVILLE, Miss. (AP) - Officers are honoring the first Black chief deputy of a north Mississippi county after he died from COVID-19.
James Rudd died Monday at age 86 after he contracted the respiratory illness.
Rudd, who had retired earlier from the Panola County Sheriff’s Office, was honored with a procession by police agencies in Batesville on Thursday. He was buried Friday.
WREG-TV reports Rudd was first African American chief deputy of the Panola County department.
Rudd’s daughter, Maryetta Rudd, credits her father for helping other African Americans to have a career in law enforcement. “He was paving the way for myself and others like me, because he was the first,” said Maryetta Rudd, now a district director for the Tennessee Department of Corrections.
She said her family received death threats early in her father’s career.
“He taught me how to be strong. He taught me how to face adversity and to hold my head up,” she said.
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