Unmarked officer’s grave recognized with new granite gravestone, ceremony over 100 years later
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – An unmarked officer’s grave was given its due recognition Wednesday morning in northwest Oklahoma City over 100 years after his death.
Officials with the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Memorial placed a granite gravestone marker and had a ceremony for officer A.L. Walton, who died back in the 1920s.
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“The baseline of policing has always been the same and always will be no matter what training, we have the best of course, the new age differences that we come up with, every one of us is willing to lay down our life or risk our lives for somebody,” a current Oklahoma City Police officer said during the ceremony.
Those are words law enforcement around the world live by. They’re also words Walton lived by in October of 1923 as he worked to save people when record rainfall caused flooding on the North Canadian River with waters 25-feet high.
“Patrolman A.L. Walton worked 36 hours straight wading into the cold waters, repeatedly carrying numerous stranded people, including many children, to safety,” Dennis Lippe with the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Memorial said.
Walton was ordered to go off duty, but refused. He eventually collapsed with high fever a day later.
“While in the hospital, he developed pneumonia and died at 4 p.m. Friday, October 26, 1923,” Lippe said.
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Over 100 years later, his unmarked grave, unmarked no more.
The ceremony for him had current officers surrounding the gravesite with what they call Burton’s police family as he’s considered one of their own.
“Family’s defined in many ways through blood,” a current Oklahoma City Police Officer said. “But the people wearing this uniform here today are absolutely his family, and that’s why he’s been recognized.”
Walton was survived by his wife and 6 children, the oldest being 14 at the time of his death.
Officials with the memorial said only 38 more unmarked graves remain in Oklahoma after the ceremony for Walton. They tell KFOR there are over 200 that they don’t even know where they’re buried.
Memorial officials said their process to do this for law enforcement across the state is long and extensive. For more on their mission, visit the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Memorial website.
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