Art's Tribute to Valor

Virginia's Painters Contribute to the State Police Memorial Gallery

By Frank Walin

In a quiet lecture room on Midlothian Pike is the only memorial portrait gallery of its kind in the United States. Located in the headquarters building of the Department of State Police, it is dedicated to those troopers who sacrificed their lives in the service of Virginia and the nation.

Hung on the spacious walls of the room are 15 oil paintings--the good-will offering of top-ranking Virginia artists who gave freely of their talents.

Fourteen of the paintings are the life-like portraits of the honored dead, while the fifteenth is a symbolic canvas dedicated to one trooper whose photograph could not be located after his death.

The honor gallery had its inception one Fall day in 1943 when two men met in a small office of the Division of Motor Vehicles. One was Colonel C. W. Woodson, Jr., Superintendent of State Police. The other was G.Watson James, Jr., a Virginia artist and employee of the Division of Motor Vehicles.

James, the moving spirit behind the gallery, advanced the idea that he could obtain the support of Virginia artists to paint the memorial portraits. Colonel Woodson was enthusiastic, but asked, "What about the money to pay the artist?"

"That would not be necessary," James replied. "It would be a free-will gesture on the part of the artists in admiration for the men who gave their lives as public servants and soldiers."

Soon after, Colonel Woodson "shoved off" for Navy duty. Major J. R. Nunn then shouldered the job of starting the gallery. He delegated the detail work to Captain W. C. Thomas who worked hand-in-hand with James and other Virginia artists.

Miss Adele Clark and Miss Bell Worsham were the first two artists approached. They began work immediately on the portraits of Sergeant Clarence Maynard and Trooper G. F. Miller, respectively. Miss Worsham's portrait of Miller, who died a lieutenant-colonel with the Third Army in Normandy, was the first to be completed.

On June 25, 1947, an honor guard of State police unveiled 12 oil paintings at dedicatory exercises in their headquarters building. Since then three additional portraits have been added to the gallery.

All of the portraits, painted from photographs, were subject to the rigid scrutiny of the Virginia Art Commission before they were hung in the gallery.

Three of the 15 State troopers memorialized in the gallery died or were killed while in military service overseas. The remaining 12 met death while patroling Virginia highways.

Men portrayed in the honor gallery and the artists who painted them are: Sergeant C. L. Maynard--Miss Adele Clark, of Richmond; Trooper W. S. Tinsley--Hugo O. Stevens, of Richmond; Trooper T. A. Belt--James E. True, of Big Stone Gap; Trooper W. H. Andrews--Russell V. Hunter, of Richmond; Trooper C. L. Wood--George H. Ben Johnston, of Richmond.

Trooper U. T. Mayo--James F. Banks, of Norfolk; Trooper W. T. Flippen--Jewett Campbell, of Richmond; Trooper C. B. Bullock--Mrs. Elizabeth N. Day, of Staunton; Trooper C. E. Hagerman--Greta Matson, of Norfolk; Sergeant C. W. Puckett--Pierre Daura, of Rockbridge County.

Trooper G. F. Miller--Miss Bell Worsham, of Richmond; Trooper William R. Thompson--G. Watson James, Jr., of Richmond; Robert E. Caldwell--Walter Whitehead, of Dare, and Inspector Philip C. Via--Frank Rowley, Jr., of Richmond.

As no photograph of Inspector W. Neville Hatcher could be found, Whitehead painted a symbolic canvas to represent the work of the department as a memorial to this officer.