ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, July 16, 1996 TAG: 9607160039
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: NARROWS
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER
Used to be on most mornings parents in this Giles County community of about 2,100 could count on an important man guiding their children across the elementary school crosswalk.
But this month the Narrows chief of police retired.
William "Buck" Clemons said the thing he will miss most about his job is the young children he teased and joked with before allowing them to cross the street to school. They considered him their friend and called him Buck.
"A lot of 'em forget their ice cream money and they'll be crying," Clemons said.
A quarter from Clemons' pocket and the children would be on their way.
"Those tears would dry right up," he said with a smile.
Clemons, 51, retired officially July 1, but spent the month before that using up vacation he had accumulated. He worked for the Narrows Police Department 29 years and one month, he said, nearly the last decade as its chief. He was eligible for retirement at 50 because he had at least 25 years of service.
"I was hired Aug. 15 of 1967; there were four full-time officers including me," Clemons said.
Back then, Clemons recalled, the badges were numbered one through four. His was No. 4.
"Just like Mayberry RFD," his wife, Margaret, piped in, referring to the rural sheriff's office depicted on the "Andy Griffith Show." "That's lots of people's favorite show here."
It was not until 14 years later, when another patrolman quit, that Clemons' badge number ascended the hierarchy to No. 3. He was rising fast now and made corporal and took over badge number two in July 1982.
Five years later the chief of police retired and "didn't nobody know who was gonna get" the job, Clemons said in his native Glen Lyn twang. That is until he was called into the office one night and asked if he would take the job.
Clemons took his seat in the chief's chair and all the responsibility of the department that had grown to six-full time officers and from one police car to four. He also accepted the $141 monthly raise in pay.
All things considered, though, Clemons said the pay was much better than his first "part-time" job as a patrolman for Rich Creek.
"I worked four nights a week, 12-14 hours a shift for $35 a week," Clemons said.
Despite the hours, the job was officially considered part time, Clemons said. So getting on full-time status in Narrows was a definite plus. |n n| Crime in Narrows is relatively scarce, as one might expect in a small, rural community. But even looking at Pearisburg, which has nearly the same population, the just-released state report on crime shows three larcenies reported in Narrows compared with Pearisburg's 22.
But don't be fooled, crimes occur here and the solutions are not always what one would expect.
Take the time a woman was held hostage for nearly two months before she wrote a note to plead for help, for instance.
Clemons said the woman and her two children lived in an apartment with about eight other people - all from North Carolina. The woman slipped a neighbor a note asking for help because the family she was with told her if she tried to leave they would kill her.
Clemons got the note after the neighbor took it to the laundry where the mayor's wife worked. He drove to the apartment and told the woman to pack her things and come with him.
"She just stared at me and said, 'I can't, I can't,'" Clemons said. "I said 'If they kill you and your children they'll have to kill me first because I'm taking you to my home.'"
The woman left with Clemons and was greeted at his home by Margaret Clemons, who had fixed a pile of homemade fried chicken. Other women in the community gathered clothes and toys for the desperate family and money for a bus ticket home.
Clemons said it turned out the woman had witnessed a murder committed by a son of the family holding her hostage. The son was drunk when he used his truck to drive over another man three times while the woman watched.
The woman's plight "was one of the most cruel, heartbreaking things" Clemons said he experienced in his job.
Why Clemons stayed so long in one place and shunned the opportunities to move and rise through the ranks of larger departments is clear to Clemons. It's the people.
"Daddy told me 'Son, some people hop from one job to another ... you need to stick with it,'" Clemons said. "I feel like if you left here you would sort of be letting people down, it growed on you to be one of them; like one of the family."
Buford Tawney, town councilman, said the town lost a good employee when Clemons retired.
"I, myself, asked him not to retire; I felt he was needed at his post," Tawney said.
The post remains empty, according to Tawney, who said the council picked 10 applicants, of the more than 20 that applied, to interview this week. There is no timeline for replacing Clemons, Tawney said, simply a goal to pick the best person for the job.
Saying goodbye to his work - even though Clemons and his wife continue to live in Narrows - was hardest when it came to the children, Clemons said. One first-grade boy made a point of telling Clemons goodbye one morning at the crosswalk.
"He reached out his hand and said 'I know you won't be here to help us across the road and I wanted to make sure to thank you for all you have done for us kids,'" Clemons recalled.
Clemons said the boy's words touched his emotions.
"It brings tears to your eyes," he said.
LENGTH: Long : 107 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM/Staff. William "Buck" Clemons reflects on hisby CNB29-plus years with the
Narrows Police Department. color.