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Roger “Tex” Maynard Courtesy/Judge Cletis Millsap, Ret.
When Roger “Tex” Maynard passed away March 14, he was the last living person to have resided in the Hopkins County Courthouse. Tex Maynard was a local legend among law enforcement and friends described him as a true cowboy.
Tex was born March 26, 1940 in Swan, Texas, an unincorporated community located in Smith County. His family moved to Fort Worth when he was 11, and he attended C.F. Brewer High School in White Settlement, where he graduated in 1958.
“Roger grew up in a rural Texas lifestyle…, where he had a passionate love for horses, the grand entry rodeos and the western range cowboy’s lifestyle,” friend and former Hopkins County Judge Cletis Millsap said. “As a youngster buckaroo in his early days in the 1940s and early 1950s, his dreams were lived through Saturday mornings at the local theater featuring his matinee cowboy heroes of the Hollywood silver screen.”
In February 1960, Tex entered into the U.S. Army, where he served until February 1963. While stationed at Fort Belvoir, Va., he met his wife, Marie, who worked at the Pentagon for the Army.
After leaving the Army in 1963, Tex and Marie wished to return to his family in Fort Worth. On July 9, 1963, Tex started school at the Department of Public Safety in Austin. Upon graduating from the academy, he was assigned to the driver’s licensing division in Sherman, Texas. On Dec. 10, 1965, Tex was transferred to the Sulphur Springs DPS office.
Because the re-assignment came up quickly, he arrived in Sulphur Springs without a vehicle or a place to live, he told Enola Gay Mathews in a 2019 interview. Tex decided to leave the family car with Marie so she could take care of their baby daughter. He didn’t have transportation of his own when he reported for duty and figured that would be alright as he would be sharing a patrol car during his shifts, he told Mathews.
Tex reported for duty as a highway patrol trooper at the DPS office, which at that time was in the Hopkins County Courthouse. He described it to Mathews as “really small, containing just a small red table, chair and filing cabinet squeezed into a cubbyhole between the offices of Justice of the Peace DeWitt Loyd and County Attorney John Perry.”
The size of the office didn’t stop Tex from doing his work, though. He spent 28 and a half years as a highway patrolman in Sulphur Springs.
“At that time, I had no idea of the wild and woolly adventures awaiting me in this new role,” Maynard said. “I had previously been working in a driver’s license office, and I was just 25 years old. …I would gain a lifetime of valuable experience while serving here over the next 28 years of my career.”
In those early days before his family relocated with him, he bunked in the courthouse. His family finally joined him on Christmas Eve 1965, a time Maynard remembered fondly.
Tex was a founding member of the Sheriff ’s Posse, a group in which he was an enthusiastic participant. Tex was one of the 22 original members of the posse who were sworn in by Sheriff Mark Bassham in 1987. The Posse was formed to assist HCSO with manpower, and Tex reported that on the first nine calls for manhunts, the posse apprehended every subject.
Tex, for all his cowboy fantasies, took it upon himself to become the Posse’s “mounted division” and trained in 1988 at a special mounted school along with Earl Martin, Dwight Bruhn and several other members and their horses. These posse members underwent special mounted police training which also proved helpful during manhunts, and in 1989, they competed at the Cotton Bowl against other mounted groups. Tex and the mounted division performed crowd control formations, skirmish line and rescue races, and fun contests like wild cow milking and calf branding. The Hopkins County team brought home the second place trophy.
In 1992, Tex ran for Hopkins County Constable Precinct 2—and won. He was sworn in Jan. 1, 1993 and served the office for 18 years until 2011. In 1995, he became a certified state instructor to teach candidates for the newly passed law on individuals qualifying for a concealed handgun license in Texas. Millsap was one of his first proud students to pass the licensing, he said.
Tex watched law enforcement change greatly over the years. There were only 10 DPS officers that patrolled the 1D region, which incorporates Hopkins, Rains, Titus, Franklin, Lamar, Red River and several more counties. As of 2018, there are 92 DPS troopers who operate out of the 1D region.
When he first began as a state trooper, Tex said that women were rarely arrested, and when they were, they were held in only one cell in the jail. The Hopkins County Jail now holds between 130 and 180 inmates, roughly half of which are female on any given day, according to jail records.
But according to Tex, the more things change, the more they stay the same. “Back before drugs became prevalent, we were kept pretty busy because of alcohol and handling calls about people who were rowdy or under the influence of alcohol. This was true during my days on highway patrol, and then during my 18 years as a constable,” Tex said. “Times have really changed since then, … but actually, people are still the same. They still break the rules, and the law has to intervene.
“I hope officers never have to lose the human aspect of law enforcement,” Tex said.
Tex Maynard was recognized for his law enforcement leadership at his retirement by the state, as they designated him as a Special Texas Ranger Commissioned for his extraordinary career in public service.
After his retirement, Tex enjoyed a wide range of activities. He loved music and singing with his friends and looked forward to his Monday night jam sessions with Tom and Ronny Glossup and Claire and Jerry Brandenburgh. On Friday mornings he met up with friends at the coffee shop to chat.
Millsap said Tex had “numerous best friends.”
Tex and Marie built their home in the southern part of the county, and for years they raised cattle and baled hay. He loved horses and riding in parades, and his friends said he loved to “play cowboy.”
He is survived by his wife of 58 years, Marie, daughter, three grandchildren and nine greatgrandchildren.
“Our dearest friend Roger Tex Maynard will always be remembered as a tall Texan in the saddle along with his trusted horse, Smokey, whenever duty called him into action to uphold the laws of the State of Texas and the United States’ constitutional laws,” Millsap stated.
“He was a real cowboy, and he had a really good heart,” friend Jaime Fox said. “I know he is rejoicing in heaven, probably riding a horse or shooting a gun.”