Memorial Honors Fallen Trooper
Trooper Walter Smith
A stretch of Hwy. 7 between Water Valley and Coffeeville was marked Trooper Walter W. Smith Memorial Highway in May, honoring the trooper who was killed in a vehicle accident in 1955. – Photo by Mary Sue Stevens
By David Howell
Editor
WATER VALLEY – A sign erected earlier this summer on Hwy. 7 between Water Valley and Coffeeville dedicates a portion of the road to a Mississippi Highway Patrol captain who was killed in an automobile crash in 1955.
Captain Walter Smith was killed on September 22, 1955, after serving 17 years with the highway patrol. Smith lived in Winona and worked out of the New Albany patrol headquarters. He was returning from an outing for patrolmen at Holly Springs when his car flipped over several times after failing to make a curve seven miles south of Water Valley on what is now known as old Hwy. 7 or County Road 436.
Smith joined the patrol when it was first established under Gov. Hugh White’s first administration, and served continuously except for two years during World War II.
His nephew, Robert Pyron, was also traveling with him and was severely injured. Pyron was a radio operator for the patrol.
Pyron, who is now 85 years old, lives in Winona and shared his recollection of the deadly crash with the Herald. Pyron said he was driving and it was his first time to travel the stretch of highway between Water Valley and Coffeeville, when he encountered the dangerous curve, known locally as Dead Man’s Curve. He also recalled they were traveling in his personal vehicle, a 1955 Olds car that was totaled. Pyron said he was in the hospital for two weeks after the wreck.
Smith is the only law enforcement officer killed in the line of duty in Yalobusha County, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page. He is one of 27 troopers who have been killed in the line of duty since the patrol was formed in 1938. Nine of the fallen troopers were killed in automobile crashes, nine by gunfire, one by accidental gunfire, one in a motorcycle crash, one was struck by a phone, two were struck by vehicles, two were killed in vehicle pursuits and one by vehicular assault.
