Harold Ray Presley

Harold Ray was Elvis Presley's first cousin once removed. His father was Noah Presley, a brother of Elvis's grandfather.{{Cite news |date=November 16, 1993 |title=Mississippi's Lee, Hinds counties to vote today |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-commercial-appeal-mississippis-lee/157473176/ |access-date=2024-10-20 |work=Commercial Appeal |location=Memphis, Tennessee |via=Newspapers.com}} Noah was a city marshal and mayor of East Tupelo, where Harold Ray grew up. In his youth, Harold Ray had a reputation for getting drunk and getting into fights.{{Cite book |title=From Midnight to Guntown: True Crime Stories from a Federal Prosecutor in Mississippi |date=2013 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |isbn=978-1-61703-801-3 |pages=296–297}}{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=Slim |date=March 13, 1992 |title=Movie tough guys can't pack the punch of Harold Ray in 3-D |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/sun-herald-movie-tough-guys-cant-pack-t/157498957/ |access-date=2024-10-20 |work=Sun Herald |location=Biloxi, Mississippi |via=Newspapers.com}}

Presley served in the United States Army and fought in the Vietnam War from 1968 to 1970.{{Cite news |last=Straziuso |first=Jason |date=July 7, 2001 |title=Presley just like famous cousin, friends say |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/sun-herald-presley-just-like-famous-cous/157469863/ |access-date=2024-10-20 |work=Sun Herald |location=Biloxi, Mississippi |via=Newspapers.com}} According to his nephew, Presley completed a GED after finding religion and recovering from alcoholism in the late 1970s.{{Cite news |last=Presley |first=Brandon |date=July 6, 2021 |title=Harold Ray: An Unlikely Start to be Legendary Sheriff |url=https://nemiss.news/harold-ray-an-unlikely-start-to-be-legendary-sheriff/ |access-date=2024-10-20 |work=NEMiss.news}} Harold Ray only saw Elvis three times before his famous cousin died in 1977. He attended the police academy in his late thirties.

Presley returned from Vietnam to East Tupelo, where he went to work at the grocery store owned by his lifelong friend, Buddy Palmer. He eventually became a manager at Palmer's Big Star, but after 24 years at the grocery, he decided he wanted a change.{{Cite news |last=Clark |first=Jim |date=February 10, 2016 |title=It's all in the Presley family |url=https://www.leecountycourier.net/news/it-s-all-in-the-presley-family/article_22da94fb-2ce1-5cc2-b22b-30408a1a1ea8.html |access-date=2024-10-20 |work=Lee County Courier}}

When Sheriff Jack Shirley offered him a job, Presley went to the police academy and joined the sheriff's department as a deputy in 1987. At the time, he joked that he had never ridden in the front seat of a patrol car before, alluding to his past as a rowdy youth. By 1993, Presley was the chief narcotics investigator for the Lee County sheriff's department.{{Cite news |date=November 1, 1993 |title=Lee County sheriff's race tops Election Day in Mississippi |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-clarksdale-press-register-lee-county/157482211/ |access-date=2024-10-20 |work=The Clarksdale Press Register |via=Newspapers.com}}

In November 1993, Presley was elected sheriff of Lee County in a special election held to fill the remaining two years of Jack Shirley's term, after Shirley died of cancer the previous year.{{Cite news |date=November 18, 1993 |title=Jailhouse rock: Presley is sheriff |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-orlando-sentinel-jailhouse-rock-pre/157483970/ |access-date=2024-10-20 |work=The Orlando Sentinel |via=Newspapers.com |agency=Associated Press}} Presley emerged as the frontrunner in a field of 14 candidates, and went on to win a runoff election against Chief Deputy Robert Armstrong, with 5,834 votes or 56 percent of the overall total, according to unofficial returns.{{Cite news |last=Mitchell |first=Jerry |date=November 3, 1993 |title=Presley faces runoff in race for Lee sheriff |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/clarion-ledger-presley-faces-runoff-in-r/157471237/ |access-date=2024-10-20 |work=Clarion-Ledger |via=Newspapers.com}} Although he played down his connection to Elvis during his campaign, "Presley For Sheriff" poiltical signs became a coveted souvenir among tourists.

Presley then had to run for sheriff again in 1995. According to Brandon Presley, at one event during the election, after the candidates were asked to speak in alphabetical order, his uncle Harold Ray got up and said, "If someone is beating on your door at 2 a.m. and you call the sheriff, which one of us (candidates) do you want to show up?" He was reelected with 66 percent of the vote.

In 1999, Presley was reelected once again with 80 percent of the vote. He remained sheriff of Lee County until his death in 2001.

Presley enjoyed personifying the tough Southern sheriff and was physically imposing, standing 6-feet 3-inches tall and weighing 285 pounds, with a six-shooter strapped to his hip. In 1995, The Atlanta Journal described him as having "made his mark in Elvis' birthplace as a drug-busting dynamo who patrols in a red Chevy pickup and leads the charge on drug raids, often using his massive frame as a battering ram on doors".

When Presley was selected for the Buford Pusser Law Enforcement Officer of the Year Award in 1995, the Buford Pusser Home and Museum noted that "[Presley's] department of 13 deputies, three criminal investigators, and two narcotics agents have made a big difference in the crime rate in Lee County", having confiscated $1 million in drugs including marijuana and 41 vehicles, and having recovered $300,000 in stolen merchandise.{{Cite news |date=May 22, 1995 |title=Lee sheriff wins Buford Pusser Award |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-vicksburg-post-lee-sheriff-wins-bufo/157576292/ |access-date=2024-10-21 |work=The Vickburg Post |via=Newspapers.com}} Named after the bat-wielding sheriff of McNairy County, Tennessee, who inspired the 1973 film Walking Tall, the award was given annually for outstanding service in the line of duty; nominations were accepted from Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. Presley traveled to Adamsville, Tennessee, for the ceremony on May 27, 1995, and was presented with a baseball bat bearing Buford Pusser's name in front of hundreds of people. Upon accepting the award, Presley stated that if Pusser was alive, he probably would have joined the war against illegal narcotics.

During his tenure as sheriff, Presley introduced numerous programs. He started a Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program in Lee County, sending specially trained deputies to local schools to educate children about the harmful effects of illegal drug use and how to "say no" when encountering peer pressure.{{Cite news |date=January 5, 1995 |title=Fines may fund drug education |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-commercial-appeal-fines-may-fund-dru/157601241/ |access-date=2024-10-22 |work=The Commercial Appeal |via=Newspapers.com}} The program started in municipalities including Baldwyn, Guntown, Mooreville, Plantersville, Saltillo, and Shannon, as well as the city of Tupelo.{{Cite news |date=February 23, 1995 |title=Lee County seeks increase in fines |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-commercial-appeal-lee-county-seeks-i/157601159/ |access-date=2024-10-22 |work=The Commercial Appeal |via=Newspapers.com}} It was expanded county-wide after Presley won the support of the Lee County Board of Supervisors to petition the Tennessee state legislature to increase fines levied by the courts to fund D.A.R.E.{{Cite news |last=Cotton |first=C. Richard |date=April 3, 1996 |title=Lee County hiking misdemeanor fines |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-commercial-appeal-lee-county-hiking/157601211/ |access-date=2024-10-22 |work=The Commercial Appeal |via=Newspapers.com}} The bill requested by Presley was signed into law by Governor Kirk Fordice on February 29, 1996. As a result, justice, circuit and county courts increased fines for driving under the influence (DUI), violation of the Controlled Substances Act, and the illegal sale of alcohol to minors by $50, and increased fines for misdemeanors by $5.

Presley also won the "Best of the Best Officers" for five years.{{Additional source needed|date=October 2024|reason=need source for five "officer of the year" awards}} After earning his own GED, he provided GED classes for training and testing inmates; he also started a work-center program for the inmates in his jail.

Presley was married, and had two sons and a daughter.{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}} He helped to look after his nephew Brandon Presley after his father was murdered, taking him riding in his patrol car in the late 1980s.{{Cite news |last=Moore |first=William |date=July 6, 2021 |title=Late Sheriff Harold Ray Presley remembered as more than just a law man |url=https://www.yahoo.com/news/sheriff-harold-ray-presley-remembered-123500606.html |access-date=2024-10-20 |work=Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal |via=Yahoo! News |agency=Tribune Publishing}} Brandon later ran Presley's first campaign for sheriff.

On the same day that he received the Pusser Award in Adamsville, Tennessee, his son Patrick was arrested for attempted aggravated assault and was later charged with drug possession.{{Cite news |last=Mitchell |first=Jerry |date=June 7, 1995 |title=Drug-busting sheriff must deal with arrest of son |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/clarion-ledger-drug-busting-sheriff-must/157470676/ |access-date=2024-10-20 |work=Clarion-Ledger |via=Newspapers.com}}

Presley died in the early morning hours of July 6, 2001, in a shootout with kidnapping suspect Billy Ray Stone (who kidnapped and killed Charlene Wright). The suspect had fled the scene of a roadblock and exchanged shots with pursuing officers. He managed to elude officers during a foot chase after crashing his vehicle. Later in the evening, Sheriff Presley received a call from Fellowship Road homeowner Robert Norris whose dogs were barking. Sheriff Presley, Deputy Jack Tate, and Norris entered a building behind the house where, during a gun battle, Presley pushed Deputy Tate clear of gunfire and was struck six times, mortally injured. He fired back at Stone, killing him with one shot. Wright died the following day from injuries she sustained after being ejected from her kidnapper's vehicle during the initial chase.{{cite web |url=https://www.odmp.org/officer/15725-sheriff-harold-ray-presley |title=Sheriff Harold Ray Presley, Lee County Sheriff's Department, Mississippi |publisher=The Officer Down Memorial Page |access-date=November 2, 2019}}

In November of 2001, a special election was held to elect a sheriff to serve the remainder of Presley's term. His brother, retired law enforcement officer Larry Presley, was elected to serve his term.{{cite web |url=https://www.gwcommonwealth.com/archives/larry-presley-elected-lee-county-sheriff-0#sthash.w6YYVKvY.dpbs |title=Larry Presley Elected Lee County Sheriff |accessdate=February 14, 2023}}

The State D.A.R.E. Officers' Association in Mississippi named its Officer of the Year Award in Harold Ray Presley's memory.{{Cite news |date=August 21, 2003 |title=Hattiesburg officer receives D.A.R.E. award |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-times-of-south-mississippi-hattiesbu/157601051/ |access-date=2024-10-22 |work=The Times of Mississippi |via=Newspapers.com}}

The Harold Ray Presley Memorial Committee raised funds to build an 8-foot tall, 11-foot wide memorial to honor Presley and five other law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.{{Cite news |date=July 6, 2002 |title=Memorial: $23,000 needed for monument; $17,000 raised (From 1B) |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/clarion-ledger-memorial-23000-needed/157469414/ |access-date=2024-10-20 |work=Clarion-Ledger |via=Newspapers.com}} The 7,766-pound memorial near the Lee County jail was dedicated in August 2002.{{Cite news |last=Ward |first=Robbie |date=July 6, 2014 |title=Slain sheriff's brother questions monument disappearance |url=https://www.djournal.com/news/slain-sheriff-s-brother-questions-monument-disappearance/article_c95eefaa-1bf9-5a77-b0bb-5e37bf73816e.html |access-date=2024-10-20 |work=Daily Journal}} It vanished under mysterious circumstances in January 2008, prompting Larry Presley to request a formal investigation into its disappearance.

{{Reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20061209202020/http://www.nrlo.net/MSLeeCounty.html NRLO Web Page]
• [https://www.odmp.org/officer/15725-sheriff-harold-ray-presley The Officer Down Memorial Page]
• [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D00EED91238F934A35754C0A9679C8B63&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fP%2fPresley%2c%20Elvis New York Times]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Presley, Harold Ray}}

Category:1948 births

Category:2001 deaths

Category:American police officers killed in the line of duty

Category:Deaths by firearm in Mississippi

Category:Mississippi sheriffs

Category:Politicians from Tupelo, Mississippi

Category:United States Army soldiers

Category:United States Army personnel of the Vietnam War

Category:Presley family

Category:20th-century Mississippi politicians