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County’s longest-serving sheriff, Holcombe, dies
By Lynn Hotaling and Carey Phillips
Fred Holcombe, who was Jackson County’s longest-serving sheriff, died Sunday at Mountain Trace Nursing Center. He was 87.
Services were scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday (March 26) at Southwestern Community College’s Myers Auditorium. His family was scheduled to receive visitors for two hours prior to the service.
Burial is planned at 1 p.m. today (Thursday) at Bumgarner Cemetery.
Holcombe was first elected sheriff in 1962, and he held that post for 24 years. When he retired in December 1986, he had been elected to and served six full terms.
Both Jackson County Sheriff Jimmy Ashe and Sylva Police Chief Jeff Jamison started their law enforcement careers under Holcombe, and both remember him fondly.
Jamison, who went to work for Holcombe in 1975, started out as a jailer. He later became a patrol deputy, shift supervisor and then Holcombe’s first detective. During Holcombe’s final term, from 1982-86, Jamison was chief deputy.
“He was one of the best individuals I’ve ever worked for,” Jamison said. “I gained a respect for Fred Holcombe that endures to this day. I always referred to him as ‘Sheriff’ even after he had retired. There’s not a day goes by that I don’t use something I learned from Fred Holcombe. I really admired Fred as a mentor. I’m very touched and saddened by his passing.”
One thing Jamison remembers about Holcombe is that he always approached everybody in the same way regardless of their social status, race or other circumstances.
“He dealt with people on a one-on-one basis,” Jamison said.
According to Jamison, Holcombe was progressive in his law enforcement thinking, establishing the first 24-hour shifts, the first detective division and the first community policing with an actual crime prevention officer.
“He practiced community policing principles before they were ever popular,” Jamison said. “He looked for solutions to problems within the community. Fred’s view was that it was easy to write a ticket or make an arrest, but that wasn’t always the solution to the problem. He didn’t go to training school for (community policing). He did it because that was the right thing to do.”
In Jamison’s view, Holcombe was ahead of his time though a lot of people didn’t see that because they didn’t work with him on a daily basis.
Ashe recalls that Holcombe was a very unique individual and said his former boss was a man of few words with a “common-sense” approach to law enforcement.
“He didn’t always have a lot to say, but when he talked, people listened,” Ashe said. “He was good to me and gave me my start.”
According to Ashe, who went to work for Holcombe when he was just 21 years old, the longtime sheriff was a role model for him.
In fact, he said, sometimes he learned things not directly related to the job.
“One day Sheriff Holcombe came in and said to me, ‘Come on, let’s go,’ ” Ashe said. “I said, ‘Where?’ and he said ‘Just you never mind – you’re driving.’ Well, we started toward Whittier where he had a farm, and I ended up herding cattle and mules.”
Ashe also remembers an incident from his very first day of work.
“I had a large moustache at the time, and it came down below my lower lip,” Ashe said. “Sheriff Holcombe looked at it and said, ‘I don’t know what it is, but it better be gone by tomorrow.’ ”
“That’s how he was – straightforward and honest,” Ashe said.
Both Ashe and Jamison were scheduled to be pallbearers.
A native and lifelong resident of Jackson County, Holcombe was a son of the late Jode and Mary Brooks Holcombe and a member of Wilmot Baptist Church. An avid outdoorsman, cattleman, farmer and bear hunter, he enjoyed going on wagon trains.
Survivors include his wife, Britta Holcombe, son Mark Holcombe, and stepdaughter, Suzanne Young.
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