Memorials › James Clark Royal

James Clark Royal

23 Nov 1893 – 13 Jan 1973

Birth	23 Nov 1893
Death	13 Jan 1973
Cemetery	Mitchell Cemetery Iredell , Bosque County , Texas , USA
Added by	Bo on 30 Jan 2008
FaG	https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/24245822

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Additional info per Carol Behringer

Bio

Waco News-Tribune, January 15, 1973 "Clark Royal, Former Bosque Sheriff, Buried at Iredell with photograph captioned "Clark Royal Longtime Officer" - Meridian - Funeral services for Clark Royal, 79, former sheriff of Bosque County, were at 11 a.m. Monday in the First Methodist Church of Meridian, Rev. J. Lester Davenport and Rev. V. E. Hankinson officiating. Burial was in Iredell Cemetery. Mr. Royal died Saturday night in a Waco hospital. Before his retirement in 1961 he had served 25 years in law enforcement work. He was a state liquor control agent in Brownwood and Waco for eight years and later served as deputy sheriff of Bosque County for eight years. He served as sheriff from 1951 to 1961. Two bank robberies occurred in Bosque County during the time Royal was sheriff. The Meridian bank was robbed in 1955. The robber was caught five hours later. The Iredell bank was robbed in 1959 and the robber was caught the next day. Total take in both robberies was $4,400. Of this, all but $10 was recovered. For years Sheriff Royal had a big Border Shepherd dog named Shorty who went nearly everywhere the sheriff went. If somebody came up to the sheriff and acted like he was going to start something, Shorty would bristle and growl until the fellow assured him he wasn't going to harm Royal. Once old Shorty held on to a fleeing prisoner's britches leg until Royal could take over. On another occasion Royal and Highway Patrolman Bill Cooksey were sitting in the sheriff's quarters in the jail when Shorty began to growl and bark and look toward the stairs. When Royal and Cooksey went to investigate a prison knocked Royal out with an iron pulley in a sock and attacked Cooksey. Cooksey warned the man, but he kept coming at him, so Cooksey fired and the man fell dead. A prisoner who had stabbed one man and beaten another with a gun once kidnapped Royal at gunpoint, made him strip off his clothes, and left him out on a country road. The sheriff caught a ride back to town, took after the man again, and two hours later cornered him and put him back in jail. Royal maintained that 90 percent of the trouble he had with lawbreakers came from people outside of Bosque County. Mr. Royal was born in 1983 in Alabama. He came to Texas at an early age. He was a member of the Methodist church. Survivors include his wife, four daughters, Mrs. Crawford Rice and Mrs. Hubert Rice, both of Meridian, Mrs. Edwin Ridings of Tyler and Mrs. Bob Simmons of Andrews; two brothers, Barney Royal of Abilene and John Royal of Austin; three sisters, Mrs. Lula Trammell of Hollis, and Mrs. Cecil Parsons and Mrs. Kirby Martin, both of Iredell; four stepchildren; 17 grandchildren; 21 great-grandchildren; and 10 step-grandchildren."

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