DAVIDSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WTVF) — Nashville police officers and their families gathered at First Baptist Church Thursday to honor more than 50 fallen officers — including 2 K-9 officers — during an annual memorial service hosted by the Andrew Jackson Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police.
Most attendees holding a yellow flower represented a loved one lost in the line of duty.
Among those honored was Officer Edward Lovoyde Tarkington, who was killed in the line of duty after responding to a residential burglary on December 17, 1978. He was 22-years-old and had served just one year on the force. He and his wife, Phyllis Tarkington Thompson, had been married only 4 months at the time of his death.
Tarkington Thompson has attended the service for years.
"I always try to be here, just to remember him," Tarkington Thompson said.
"We both worked at the police department. He was in communications and I was in central records," she said. "From day one, that's all he wanted to do, was all he talked about, was to be a police officer."
"It was heartbreaking, it was heartbreaking. Never realized that he would be gone so soon," Tarkington Thompson said.
When an officer dies in the line of duty or for health reasons, the pain reaches departments nationwide. But Tarkington Thompson said she hopes the list of fallen officers stops growing.
"I hope no other name will be added to this list," Tarkington Thompson said.
Tarkington Thompson said she and Officer Tarkington would have celebrated 50 years together in two years.
Find a full list of MNPD fallen officers, here.
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