By Barbara Hoberock
Tulsa World
OKLAHOMA CITY — Twenty Department of Corrections’ employees who died in the line of duty were remembered Friday with the dedication of a memorial in their honor.
Their names were engraved on a black granite monument a short distance from a small reflecting pool on the grounds of the Department of Corrections administration building in Oklahoma City.
Additional elements are expected to be added to the monument later, including benches, a fountain and more landscaping.
Nine families of those who were killed were represented, said Department of Corrections Director Justin Jones.
Jones said that when he became DOC director in 2005, the pictures of fallen employees hung on a wall, but there was no memorial.
Creating the memorial was one of the things he wanted to do, he said.
A member of an honor guard gave each family a folded Oklahoma flag after Joyce Jackson, the DOC’s executive communications administrator, read their name, title, date of death and assigned location.
Pam Carter accepted the flag after her mother’s name was read.
Gay Carter, was a food supervisor at the Dick Conner Correctional Center in Hominy when an inmate stabbed her to death in 1998.
Pam Carter was working at the prison the day her mother was attacked and was summoned by a co-worker to her mother’s side.
“At least I was able to tell Mom ‘I love you’ while she was on the floor,” said Pam Carter, who now works for the Department of Corrections as a case manager the at Jess Dunn Correctional Center in Taft.
She said she hoped that her mother was not able to feel the pain from the injuries inflicted upon her.
Carter said the memorial represents the “correctional family.”
Carter is on the board of the Oklahoma Correctional Employees Memorial Foundation, which raised funds to build the memorial.
Probation and Parole Officer Jeffery Matthew McCoy was killed in 2012 while on assignment in Midwest City. He is survived by a wife and two children, among others.
His widow, Megan McCoy, said the memorial was long overdue.
“I am glad my kids have a place to go to see him honored,” she said.
Genese McCoy, who also works for the Corrections Department, said her son got into corrections because he wanted to make a difference.
He was a corrections officer and case manager before becoming a probation and Parole officer, she said.
“His life counted and still counts to a lot of people,” Genese McCoy said.
Jeffery McCoy’s name is the most-recent one listed on the monument.
“May the last name on this monument remain the last name on this monument,” said Jones, who began his career with the DOC in 1977 as a probation and parole officer. “May no other family have to endure such a loss.”