Col. Homer Garrison, Jr.

Born in Kickapoo (Anderson Co.) in 1901, Homer Garrison was the son of Mattie (Milam) and Homer Garrison, Sr. The family moved to Angelina County, where Homer, Sr. served as district clerk. Homer, Jr. graduated from Lufkin High School and worked for his father. Against his father’s advice, he took his first law enforcement job at age 19, as Angelina County deputy sheriff. In 1929, he became the state license and weight inspector for the Texas Highway Department. When the Texas Highway Patrol organized in 1930, Homer, Jr. was one of the first thirty patrolmen.

In 1935, the Texas Legislature created the Department of Public Safety (DPS), combining the Highway Patrol with the Texas Rangers, the state’s oldest law enforcement group. Garrison was the first assistant director and developed training for DPS officers. Three years later, Col. Garrison became DPS director and chief of the Texas Rangers. Under his leadership, the DPS grew to more than 3,400 employees and major programs developed, including crime control, police training and traffic supervision, driver licensing, vehicle inspection, safety education, and defense and disaster service. In his thirty years as head of the state law enforcement agency, federal and state agencies sought Garrison’s expertise and experience. He also served as head of state defense and disaster relief efforts. Garrison helped secure a headquarters building and museum for the Texas Rangers in Waco. At the groundbreaking, he gave what was to be his last speech, remarking of the Rangers, “They are men who cannot be stampeded;” these words are at the base of the museum’s Texas Ranger statue. Garrison died in 1968. He and his wife Mary Nell (Kilgo) are buried at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.