A hero’s farewell: Winchester says goodbye to former Police Chief

By Matt Cizek | The Winchester Sun

Upon approach­ing George Rogers Clark High School on the morn­ing of Saturday, April 20, the sight of numer­ous American flags lin­ing the road­way indi­cat­ed some­thing notable was tak­ing place.

As would soon become appar­ent, final respects and a trib­ute were being paid. Hundreds from Winchester and sur­round­ing coun­ties gath­ered for the wake and funer­al ser­vice of Sgt. Marty Jackson, also for­mer chief of the Winchester Police Department, with many more show­ing respect en route to Winchester Cemetery — where Jackson was buried.

Jackson, 73, had respond­ed to a call in the ear­ly morn­ing hours of Sunday, April 14, where he felt chest pains and short­ness of breath. He passed away from a heart attack lat­er that evening.

“Marty [was] a sta­ple in the law enforce­ment com­mu­ni­ty for [near­ly] the last 50 years,” stat­ed Pastor Lee Cruse of Grace Bible Church dur­ing the eulo­gy. “Marty loved this com­mu­ni­ty of Winchester and want­ed to make a difference.”

After start­ing his career in Paris, Jackson joined the Winchester Police Department in the late 1970s, spend­ing the next 47 years of his life serv­ing the city and even­tu­al­ly being pro­mot­ed to chief of Police.

In that capac­i­ty, Cruse not­ed, Jackson was involved in no few­er than 17 dif­fer­ent inci­dents where peo­ple were shoot­ing at him – coura­geous­ly com­ing back to work to serve Winchester after each encounter with danger.

He was also active­ly involved with find­ing the best future offi­cers, includ­ing the hir­ing of cur­rent Police Chief James Hall.

On Saturday, an ear­ly morn­ing vis­i­ta­tion from approx­i­mate­ly 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. took place in a room just beyond the main gym­na­si­um with close fam­i­ly and fel­low offi­cers of the Winchester Police Department. Afterward, Jackson’s cas­ket was wheeled into the gymnasium.

During the course of this process, as would be done on many occa­sions through­out the day, law enforce­ment funer­al ser­vice rit­u­als were observed.

This includ­ed mul­ti­ple lines of offi­cers stand­ing and salut­ing the cas­ket as it was tak­en from one loca­tion to the next. Over the next three hours, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., an Honor Guard con­sist­ing of mul­ti­ple offi­cers from var­i­ous agen­cies stood guard over Jackson’s cas­ket, with mem­bers alter­nat­ing every 15 min­utes, as pub­lic vis­i­ta­tion took place.

Along with first respon­ders of the Winchester Police Department, rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Clark County Sheriff’s Department, Winchester Fire Department and Clark County Fire Department attended.

Departments from out­side of Clark County includ­ing the Kentucky State Police, Lexington Police Department, Georgetown Police Department, Berea Police Department, Richmond Police Department, and more also participated.

During pub­lic vis­i­ta­tion, with a line that extend­ed long enough for the gen­er­al pub­lic to have to stand out­side of the gym­na­si­um, hun­dreds wait­ed to pay respects to Jackson.

Included among them were Winchester Mayor JoEllen Reed, for­mer Mayor Ed Burtner, City Commissioners Shannon Cox and Kitty Strode, Clark County Judge-Executive Les Yates, Clark County attor­ney William Elkins, Clark County Coroner Neal Oliver, Clark County Public Schools Superintendent Dustin Howard and many more.

Alongside Jackson’s cas­ket, which was draped in an American flag, flow­ers and more that had been donat­ed from var­i­ous busi­ness­es and oth­er orga­ni­za­tions were placed.

These includ­ed the Fraternal Order of Police Bluegrass Lodge #4, Clark County School Police, Winchester Professional Firefighters Local 1807, the City of Winchester, Glen Eden Youth Center, Woody’s Sports Bar & Grill, Rural King, Truist Bank, Sally Beauty, and many more.

During the cer­e­mo­ny, which includ­ed var­i­ous music num­bers such as “I’ll Fly Away” by Alan Jackson – sung in uni­son by Jackson’s grand­chil­dren and those in atten­dance – Cruse list­ed sev­er­al of Sgt. Jackson’s char­ac­ter attributes.

Among them was the fact that Jackson, who first met Cruse in the 1970s, had a pos­i­tive demeanor which nev­er changed over the years.

The pas­sion he had for his work was evi­dent as well.

“I real­ly believe that the Lord calls oth­ers into their pro­fes­sion because they’re so good at it. I think law enforce­ment is one of those,” Cruse said. “I believe that Marty Jackson was called to be a policeman.”

He also not­ed that Jackson often kept a Bible inside his squad car.

“He had a rela­tion­ship with Christ,” Cruse said. “That’s the thing that pushed him and drove him.”

While the ser­vice itself end­ed at approx­i­mate­ly 12:00 p.m., the hon­or of remem­ber­ing Jackson was far from over.

Led by first respon­ders, a pro­ces­sion trav­eled to Winchester Cemetery, first exit­ing left out of GRC on Boonesboro Road.

From there, a left turn on Bypass Road took trav­el­ers to the Interstate, after which they would turn right on Exit 96 to come into down­town on Maple Street.

The pro­ces­sion passed by Winchester Police Department Headquarters before tak­ing a right on Lexington Avenue, trav­el­ing to Winchester Cemetery.

In a mov­ing dis­play, hun­dreds if not more from Winchester and sur­round­ing coun­ties parked their vehi­cles or stood out­side to pay trib­ute and wish farewell to Jackson.

Some even stood over­look­ing the Interstate, while oth­ers waved flags – includ­ing the Thin Blue Line flag – or cre­at­ed posters hon­or­ing Jackson.

Cruse spoke to Jackson’s fam­i­ly at the cemetery.

“I have nev­er seen the ado­ra­tion and affec­tion that this town has [shown],” he said. “We saw the love that this com­mu­ni­ty [has].”

Along with Cruse speak­ing and offer­ing words of encour­age­ment towards Jackson’s fam­i­ly, funer­al cus­toms and tra­di­tions for a fall­en mem­ber of the police force – includ­ing the 21-gun salute and play­ing of “Taps” – continued.

A cer­e­mo­ni­al last call over the radio was giv­en to hon­or Jackson, also rec­og­nized as Unit 38.

The flag drap­ing Jackson’s cas­ket was fold­ed, and pre­sent­ed to Jackson’s wid­ow – Jeannie – by Chief Hall.

At the end of the cer­e­mo­ny, oth­ers – includ­ing Jackson’s grand­chil­dren – had one final oppor­tu­ni­ty to write a mes­sage pay­ing tribute.

It was fit­ting for a man who meant so much to so many.

Along with his wife, Jeannie, Jackson is imme­di­ate­ly sur­vived by his three daugh­ters, son, 11 grand­chil­dren, and two great grandchildren.

Yet there are many oth­ers who will con­tin­ue to remem­ber the man who was as rec­og­niz­able to Winchester as anyone.

“Marty is also sur­vived by a com­mu­ni­ty of friends,” Cruse said.

This sto­ry first appeared in The Winchester Sun.