| Steve Blow: A few words on another brave officer 01/12/2001 By / The Dallas Morning News WHITEWRIGHT, Texas – When someone mentions the North Texas police officer killed in the line of duty, we almost certainly think of Irving Officer Aubrey Hawkins.
But there was another officer who died the day before. And in our clamor over the seven desperadoes suspected in Officer Hawkins' death, perhaps we have not given Cpl. Jim Lamance his due.
I headed north one afternoon this week to try to do a little to set that right.
Whitewright is a quaint town of 2,000 up near Sherman. Its old downtown buildings are enjoying a rebirth as shops and boutiques for city folks out wandering on weekends. Even the town's picture show, The Odeum, has been refurbished and reopened.
And it was here in Whitewright that Jim Lamance also got a chance to start life anew.
Career change at 50
He had spent much of his life in the steady but unexciting business of cutting hair. But at age 50, he enrolled in the Texoma Regional Police Academy to begin working toward his lifelong dream of becoming a police officer.
That ambition proved to be a good one. "He was an excellent officer," Whitewright Police Chief Bob Wallace said.
When I visited, Chief Wallace was in the middle of filling out FBI forms related to Jim's death. He had one in front of him called "Analysis of Law Enforcement Officers Killed & Assaulted."
He leaned back in his chair, distancing himself from the chore. "Jim told me once that he'd never done anything that he loved as much as police work. And it showed. He did a great job.
"He was mature. You see some new officers who suffer from John Wayne syndrome. He didn't have that. He didn't let it go to his head," the chief said.
Whitewright's mayor, retired pharmacist Bill Goodson, said, "I never heard one bad word about him or his tactics." And in a town the size of Whitewright, the mayor would hear.
Jim, 53, was killed when shots were fired from a pickup he was trying to stop on suspicion of drunken driving. A suspect remains in the Fannin County jail on a capital murder charge.
Jim left behind a wife, Lynnette, and two daughters.
Tragedy follows tragedy
There seems to be no irritation around Whitewright that Jim's death was so quickly overshadowed. They don't need big-city reporters in town to validate their grief.
The Baptist church up in Denison was filled to overflowing for the funeral. The memorial-fund buckets at the Quick Check store and the Dairy Queen have overflowed with donations.
And Chief Wallace is quick to say that Dallas-area police departments certainly didn't ignore the loss. "I can't say enough good about them. We had more than 200 police cars here for the funeral."
Still, Mr. Goodson said he wishes there had been a bit more public awareness of the tragedy. "Regardless of where an officer is, he's still an officer. And proper attention should be paid."
Jim's position on the police force has already been filled – by his 43-year-old brother.
Inspired by Jim's midlife career change, Kevin Lamance had left his railroad job and enrolled in the police academy.
In fact, he was riding with his brother as an unpaid reserve officer on the night Jim was killed. It was just his third night on the job.
Has the tragedy dissuaded him from the career change? "I've got to be honest. I've got reservations," he said. "But I'm not going to back down. I'm ready to go for it."
Chief Wallace hopes so. He sees a lot of Jim in his new hire.
Steve Blow can be reached at 214-977-8374 and at .
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