09/02/2024
Over the past fifteen years I have been posting on my Facebook profile about law enforcement professionals that have passed away. Some were current, active duty officers that were killed or died in the line of duty and some were retired officers that I had the privilege to meet and work with over the years. All were fine people and dedicated public servants, but some became more than just professional colleagues. Some, had taken a special interest in me, helping to develop my career and guided me along the way with their mentoring and some just became close and dear friends. While announcing the passing of them all is difficult for me, some announcements are much more heartfelt because they were special to me. This is one of those special ones. It is with much sadness that I announce the passing of another of our local heroes.
On the evening of Thursday, August 29, 2024, we lost Retired Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office First Sergeant Ednee “Ed” Marooe Gaylor, Jr. Sergeant Gaylor was 79.
I can remember vividly meeting Ed for the first time in September of 1974, while I was attending college at Forsyth County Technical Community College. I had just graduated from high school and enrolled in the 2 year Police Science Program at what was routinely referred to as “The University Of Silas Creek At The Dump” because the campus was located next door to the public landfill. I had only been in class a few days when one morning while on a class break, we were all standing around in the hallway near our classrooms and the canteen. I knew many of the officers from my time in the Winston-Salem Police Explorer Program and working around them or riding with them on weekends. I had gotten to know many members of the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office as they would come into Police Records to get copies of arrest reports, mugshots, check on warrants or to get their prisoners fingerprinted and photographed. Like most all officers did that knew me, Ed Gaylor called me “FROG” or “FROGGIE” due to my deep low voice. For a young person still in my teens, they couldn’t help but kid me about my voice and often asked if Lurch from the TV Show, "The Adams Family" was my daddy. Lurch, the family butler was about 7 foot tall and had an extremely deep bass voice. If you’re not old enough to remember the program, Google it.
On this particular morning, while on break, Ed came over to where I was standing with my plastic cup of Pepsi and said, “HEY FROG!” “How bout buying me a drink cause I ran out this morning and forgot my money.” The other deputies began telling me not to fall for that as Ed was apparently notorious for bumming food and beverage off of unsuspecting “VICTIMS” like myself. I laughed and heeding the warning from the others, I told him I didn’t have any more change to feed into the machine. About that time, he came over close to where I had sat my drink down on a table and he stuck his index finger into his mouth, pulled it out and then dipped it down into my drink. Even though I was much younger than the officers in the class with me, I spoke up in a loud tone of voice telling him how disgusting that was and that if he wanted the drink that bad he could have it. For a moment it made me extremely angry and according to those standing near by watching, they said I had the look on my face as if he had taken a leak on my shoes. The entire group busted out into laughter and Ed, thanked me for the drink and told me he would buy the next round during break tomorrow. He then picked up his newly acquired drink and guzzled it down before going back to class. While I recall calling him everything EXCEPT a child of God, after a few minutes I too was laughing at his shenanigans. The next day, just like he said he would, during break he called me over to the canteen and offered to buy me a drink of my choice. I went to the Pepsi machine that dispensed cans, which also cost a little bit more and I told him to buy me a canned Pepsi, which he purchased. Upon popping the top on the can, I told him I knew he couldn’t stick his fingers in that container. For weeks following, every morning during our first break, I would be the target of humorous comments reminding me how Ed had gotten a free drink off of me and they all laughed at the look on my face as I watched in disbelief what he did to get it.
Over the years, if I was working and Ed came into police records for anything, he would always ask for me to help him. If I responded to a crime scene call out in the county as we often did to assist them on major calls, because they didn’t have a dedicated Crime Scene Unit and if he was one of the deputies involved, he would help carry my equipment and es**rt me around making sure that anything I needed was available. Sometimes we would meet for meals while we were working the same shifts and he was always full of jokes, humor and CRAP!
When I transferred over to the Sheriff’s Office in 1985, I had to go through Field Training where I was assigned to the Patrol Division for training. The platoon they put me on was Charlie Platoon and my Corporal was Ed Gaylor. He treated me like I was a favorite and he made sure I was looked after while going through the training. When my training was over, I went to my regular assignment in the Crime Scene Unit which was part of the Detective Division. Upon going to work at the sheriff’s office, I also was asked to take over their Sheriff Explorer Program as Sergeant Ken Plymale and his wife Loretta were wanting to step away from the program as they had served as Advisors for many years. Not long after taking over the program, I had the good fortune to meet Ed’s son who they called Trey as he was Ednee Gaylor the third. Because Trey was very active in the program and regularly demonstrated his interest in pursuing a career in law enforcement, that also meant I was working around Ed regularly as well. Trey, while he looked like his dad, was soft spoken, polite and quiet, where his dad was rambunctious, spoke loud, told crude jokes all the time and seemed to enjoy being obnoxious every chance he could.
After a few years at the Sheriff’s Office, I had the opportunity to transfer out into the Patrol Division. I was assigned to Baker Platoon as part of a major departmental reorganization and I again found myself working for Gaylor who was now a Sergeant and one of my supervisors. While I never let him forget about that day when we first met, I found him to be one of the best supervisors I ever worked for. He didn’t just treat me special, but he looked at all of us assigned under him as his “Children” and he was always there for us if we had problems. I found him very quick to speak up on our behalf if our decisions were challenged by the upper echelon or as a result of some citizen complaint. He used to say, “if you’re not getting complained on in this business, it’s because you’re not doing your job.”
Because I knew my way around the county, he would often assign me as a “roving car” which meant when the cars assigned to a particular zone became tied up on calls, my job was to go to their zone and answer calls until they cleared. It also meant that I was constantly rolling over half the county each shift as I had to respond as a back up unit to who ever was in need of one. Sometimes, when the regularly assigned zone cars were tied up, I could find myself having to respond alone to some disturbance, fight call, stabbing or shooting because there were no other cars available. When that happened, the Sergeants, Corporals and even the Lieutenant would respond to assist me. I responded to many hot calls where my back up was Sergeant Gaylor. If I had to make an arrest and they resisted resulting in a fight, he would be rolling around on the ground with me if that’s what it took.
While Ed wasn’t a body builder or anything like that, he was just a big framed man and most people didn’t want to mess with him because they could tell he was willing to fight or talk which ever they preferred. I enjoyed working for him as he always treated people with professionalism, sincerity and compassion. No matter how much they cussed or screamed at us, he let it roll right off his back and would say something agreeing with them to a point so they would calm down and speak with him and stop yelling at him. If he hit one, it was always because they hit him first or tried to. If he made a mistake of some kind and according to him he made plenty, he would make fun of himself and laugh the loudest when telling it on himself. He was always fun to work with and to be around. I never saw him lose his temper even if taking a sucker punch from some punk trying to get away from him. He did not condone brutality or excessive force and always reminded us we would catch more flies with honey than with vinegar so be nice to people until they force us not to be.
He recognized I had a knack for conducting quality investigations and interviews of suspects so he would often assign me to follow-up on something rather than calling Detectives out in the middle of the night. He would allow me to pursue the case as far as I could during our shift so there wouldn’t be much for the detectives to do when the case was assigned to them. He would often tag along with me because he would laugh and say, “I just love to watch you work.” Sometimes if he was having to meet with a citizen to take a complaint against another deputy, he would have me go with him as a witness, but it was because he would have me write it all up so he didn’t have to. He would tell me that I had a way of writing things up much better than he could and that my reports, investigations and complaint documents were so thorough, the BRASS enjoyed reading them and knew that I had covered all the bases. Needless to say, I learned a lot about investigating complaints by helping him. While I could write volumes of stories about Ed Gaylor and the enjoyment I had working with him, I’ll refrain due to the lack of space here on Facebook.
His obituary tells us that Ednee Marooe Gaylor Jr., of Kernersville, North Carolina, died at home August 29, 2024 due to a long battle with kidney and heart issues. He was born August 2, 1945, to Clara Mildred Carroll Gaylor and Ednee Marooe Gaylor Sr., in Staunton, Virginia, where he was an only child. He joined the Army, serving two tours of duty in Vietnam as a helicopter mechanic. Upon his return home, he became a Forsyth County Sheriff’s Reserve Deputy, then going full time retiring as a First Sergeant after 27 years of service to the citizens of Forsyth County. Ed loved reading, mostly history and particularly anything military related. He was an avid gun collector, enjoyed working on cars and woodworking. He was known as a colorful character who never shied away from expressing his opinion, regardless of the listener’s interest. Some found him offensive, but that only egged him on.
Ed often said that he would have to answer to God one day for bringing a “liberal Democrat” (also known as his eldest child Ginny,) into the world, but his younger child, Trey, was a consolation (despite joining the United States Marine Corp) because he pursued a career in law enforcement as a Sheriff’s Deputy, reaching the rank of Sergeant like his dad. Ed is survived by his daughter Virginia (Ginny) Marie Gaylor and Joe Barvir; and their family: Jen Barvir, Lindsay Barvir (Colin Davenport and Atlas Davenport) and Austin Rumley; his son Ednee (Trey) Marooe Gaylor III, his wife Ashley (a Lieutenant with the sheriff’s office) and their family Sydney Gaylor, Ethan Gaylor, Caitlyn Gaylor and Mason Griffin (Taylor Brady); and his former wife, Laura Barr Gaylor.
A graveside service will be held at 11:00 am on Friday, September 6, 2024 at August Memorial Park, 1775 Old Goose Creek Road in Waynesboro, VA 22980.
A visitation will be held from 5:00 pm to 8:00 on Tuesday, September 3, 2024 at Salem Funerals and Cremations located at 2951 Reynolda Road, Winston-Salem, NC 27106. Online condolences may be made at salemfh.com
Ed Gaylor was a Cop’s Cop and dedicated public servant. He was a devoted family man and exceptional good friend. Thank you Sarge for your many years of service, mentoring and friendship. Your watch is over, may you rest in peace until we meet again.
