Lewis Catron stood on the front wall with law enforcement

Jul. 10—For the entire Pulaski County community, Lewis Catron will always be remembered as the pillar of strength in the face of unfathomable tragedy. On Friday, Harold Lewis Catron, age 77, and his wife Carol Catron, age 73, passed away from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning.

Long before his own tragic death, Lewis Catron had to face unbearable family tragedy.

On April 10, 1957, Lewis and his father Harold Catron were on the front porch of their home sawing lumber. A 1938 black Buick sedan drove toward their house and a shot from a 16-gauge shotgun ripped through the back of Harold Catron. His son, Lewis, 11, was working with him on the porch and was hit in the arm with several of the pellets from the charge.

Harold Carton, 55, died of a heart attack caused by the bullet fragments that remained in his body from that front-yard shooting seven years prior. Lewis was only 18 years old and his younger brother Sam was 11 years old at the time of their father's death.

Almost 36 years later, Lewis Catron lost another member of his family to an assassin's bullet. On April 13, 2002, former Pulaski County Sheriff Sam Catron was shot and killed while attending a campaign fish fry in the Shopville area.

The vision of Lewis Catron comforting his grieving mom, Jennie Rachel Catron, at Sheriff Sam Catron's April 18, 2002 funeral will forever be remembered as one of the darkest times in the county's history.

But out of family tragedy, Lewis Catron became a staple and mentor to the Pulaski County Sheriff's Office. Former Pulaski County Sheriff Todd Wood was elected into the county's top law enforcement position following Sam Catron's murder.

"I'll always remember when Lewis and I sat down and spoke a short time after the [Sam Catron's] assassination," Wood stated. "Lewis so graciously and kindly gave me his support [for sheriff]. Even through it was an incredibly difficult time for him and his family, he publicly supported me for sheriff, and I always appreciated that."

Throughout his three terms as sheriff, Wood and the sheriff's office continued to receive support from Lewis Catron long after his brother's death.

"Lewis was certainly a genuine and loyal supporter of all law enforcement," Wood stated."He is one of those unique individuals who will be so greatly missed by the entire county and certainly the law enforcement community here as a whole."

Likewise, current Pulaski County Sheriff Bobby Jones has so many lasting memories of Lewis Catron and his work with the local Sheriff's Office.

"Lewis has been notoriously supportive of the Pulaski County Sheriff's Office for years, and he has been a big part of it," Jones vaunted. "We talked to him quite often about certain things. He was a special deputy for us, and later was an honorary deputy."

For nearly 50 years, Lewis Catron was always involved with the Pulaski County Sheriff's Office and had been a vital part of its operations. While not choosing law enforcement as his career, it was always part of Lewis Catron's life. Jones, who was hired into the the Sheriff's Office in 1998 by Sam Catron, remembers Lewis being an integral part of the office on his very first day of work.

"When I was hired in 1998, Lewis was already a big part of the sheriff's department, and it probably went back farther than when I arrived," Jones said. "He always attended our Christmas dinners, and he would always come in and give advice, mentor us, and mainly just support the Sheriff's office.

"He knew the 'ins and outs' of the sheriff's office and how it should be ran," Jones added. "He was an outside voice for us who would hear stuff out in public and bring it to our attention on things we could improve on. He was a wealth of information and very interesting to talk to him about those things about the previous years with him and Sam."

Jones even told a story of Lewis Catron assisting him make an arrest early on in his law enforcement career.

"I was on patrol when a son had run over his mother and the vehicle was still sitting on top of her," Jones recalled. "The son was drunk on moonshine and was resisting arrest. Lewis was right there with me, helping me affect the arrest on the son. That's just one of many, many stories that could be told about him helping us out at the sheriff's department."

After tragically losing both his law enforcement father and brother, Lewis Catron could have just as easily distanced himself from the dangers of law enforcement. And if he had, everyone would have easily understood.

But instead, Lewis Catron made it a point to support the local law enforcement offices throughout his life.

"Lewis and Carol both were genuine and loyal," Wood stated. "They were friends of the community and they were friends of law enforcement. Lewis never took a step back though he went through some incredibly difficult times. He stood on the front wall with law enforcement every day."

Contact Steve Cornelius at scornelius@somerset-kentucky.com.