Once A Trooper, Always A Trooper Ed Vandergriff, Oklahoma's Oldest Living Retired Trooper

by Angie Allread

The scars and swollen knuckles on his large boney hands bear witness to a life lived long ago. The pain in his hand a constant reminder of the time he grabbed the blade of a knife wielded by violator intent on doing harm to his partner. “He” is retired Trooper Ed Vandergriff. Trooper Vandergriff worked the roads of Oklahoma before most of us were born. In February of 2000, the Oklahoma State Legislature honored Ed by passing a resolution naming Ed as the oldest living retired trooper. Today, 7 years later, Ed is alive and well living in Hugo, Oklahoma.

Ed Vandergriff was born September 7, 1910 in Abilene, Texas. As one of nine children, he grew up learning the value of hard work on the farm and then became a school teacher at Frogville where his values and desire to help others in need became evident when he carried a sick child from the school house  back to the child’s home in a pouring rain.  There were no phones or no cars, explains Ed, “I just did what I had to do”.

Ed saw an article in the Hugo Daily News about how the legislature had passed a bill that would create the highway patrol. He sat down and wrote them a letter stating he would like to apply, or at least talk to someone about this newly formed highway patrol. Several months passed and he never heard from anyone in response to his letter so he decided he was going to continue being a schoolteacher. Over the summer, he went to summer school at OU and when he returned home, there was a letter from Oklahoma City requesting an interview with him about this newly formed organization. He went to it and in thirty days, he was training to become a state trooper. In 1937, the first school of the highway patrol graduated and went to work. There were two classes in 1937 so the training was split in order to get as many troopers ready as possible. They trained at the University of Oklahoma because at that time there was no training center.

He earned $60.00 a month as a schoolteacher, but the patrol paid $150.00 a month, with everything furnished except socks and underwear, although the money was not the only reason Vandergriff became a state trooper, he was sure happy to be making it. The money was so good, in fact, that Ed would send his entire pay check home to his mother to buy land with and he would live on his expense check. He recalls that people used to call him, “that steak eating trooper” because times were tough and people resented the amount of money troopers were making.

His first assignment was to Perry, but he lived in a hotel in Guthrie. His first partner, William Bailey also lived in that hotel with his wife, Edna. A 1937 Ford was his vehicle with a communication system that was created by Charlie Hughes, a dispatcher at Duncan. The communication system consisted of a giant pole wrapped with copper wire that sat on the bumper. When they would go under an overpass, someone would have to get out of the car and remove the pole in order for the car to fit. Vandergriff jokingly recalls, “we wouldn’t go to the river too much; we didn’t want to be getting in and out”.

He remembers one night when they did go through an underpass and some boys dropped a sack full of water off the overpass. When the sack hit the car, it exploded causing quite a commotion. The troopers were not sure what had just happened to their car so they jumped out of the car and started shooting in the air. Ed clearly remembers the boys because he notes that he recently saw one of them and just had to smile.

Ed’s workday consisted of a two-man detachment were one man would go to work at 1:00pm and pick his partner up at 6:00pm and they would both work until midnight. After midnight the first Trooper would be dropped off at home and the other would listen for calls and then would have to pick his partner back up if called into action. They would get three days off a month.

When World War II came, Vandergriff volunteered to go since he was not drafted. During the time that he served, he went around the world with little communication with his family. He was on the patrol, stationed at Durant in charge of the troop headquarters when he left for the war. Floyd Brown and Dub Watson were his supervisors during that time. When the commissioner and the assistant commissioner, came to visit his headquarters for a troop meeting, he proudly told them then and still maintains today, “I have thirty-eight of the best men in the state of Oklahoma”.

Most of his calls were for drunks, he recalls that there were not many traffic calls like there are now but he also states that the reason for this was due to poor communications. He says, “there’s not a speck of comparison between now and then”. As time went on, the communications improved due mostly to the efforts of Charlie Hughs and other individuals. Eventually towers up in the hills replaced the poles on the back of the patrol cars, which Ed was glad to see since the danger of tearing up a patrol car was diminishing. The communication in present day has improved “1000 percent” according to Ed. Another change he has noticed is the acceptance of troopers by the public and other law enforcement agencies.

He has noticed changes in society and the way people act toward each other.   He compares them to “the creeping paralysis” by saying, “it creeps upon you and you don’t know you have it until someone diagnoses your case. That’s the way people are, the changes are gradual”.  He notices that, “people are funny, some of them are good, and those are the kind of people that you can never repay for helping you out. The only thing you can do is fall in and help them over that rough spot that they are going through, that way; they get compensated for what they did for you”.

Ed retired from the highway patrol in 1960. He became the Sheriff of Choctaw County but could only do it for two years. He says, “I wouldn’t have it, two years was all I wanted, I had all the law I wanted”. What he wanted was just to live in the country. “We (him and his wife, Nora) were going to spend the rest of our lives there. We had everything it took to live, neighbors, and friends, but we didn’t have but a month until it showed up”. The “it” was Alzheimer’s disease. His wife was diagnosed with it shortly after both of them retired. She died about seven years ago; the loss of his wife has been extremely difficult for Ed. He calls this place, “a lonely world”. All of the folks Ed called friend are gone, his wife is gone but he remains upbeat and positive. He believes he is here for a purpose partially because there are many unexplained reasons as to why he is still around. So when asked if he would do it again (the trooper part), he smiles and without hesitation answers yes.