Former Lee County Sheriff Larry Presley dies
Mar. 31—TUPELO — Veteran law enforcement officer Larry Wayne Presley, who rose to the top of both the Tupelo Police Department and the Lee County Sheriff's Office, died Thursday night.
Presley, 78, passed away in his home peacefully after an extended illness.
An east Tupelo native, Presley served two years in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, before returning home and later going to work for the Tupelo Police Department.
"I started in 1976 in the patrol division and on my first day on the job we had a bank robbery," he recalled in a 2001 interview with the Daily Journal.
About three months later, the first time he worked the night shift he was shot after he pulled over a car.
"The guy was wanted for forgery," Presley said in 2016. "I asked him to get out of the car and he reached under the seat. I dove in the window to stop him. During the struggle, he saw my gun and ended up shooting me in the arm."
Over the next 25 years there were plenty of promotions and accolades. He started as a patrolman and retired as a Major overseeing the patrol division.
After just three years on the job, he was named the department's officer of the year. In 1989 and 1990, he was named the Mississippi Law Enforcement Officer of the Year. The second honor came after Presley saved an unconscious car crash victim who was trapped inside a burning vehicle.
He had been retired about a year from TPD when his brother, Lee County Sheriff Harold Ray Presley, was shot and killed in the line of duty. Presley won the special election and filled out the remaining two years of his late brother's term.
After leaving the sheriff's office in 2004, Presley volunteered his time in the community and with the East Main Church of Christ, where he served as a deacon. He also served on the Tupelo Police Citizens Advisory Board.
His funeral is scheduled for Monday April 3 at 2 p.m. Lee Memorial Funeral Home is handling the arrangements entrusted with the arrangements.
