Journal Review
Final Salute
Maria J. Flora
GREENCASTLE — Law enforcement and emergency personnel outnumbered family and friends at Jim Baugh’s funeral Wednesday.About 500 emergency workers from throughout the state filed past Baugh’s flag-draped casket in Neal Fieldhouse at DePauw University. Countless others stood in the cold directing traffic at the school and on the cemetery route.Montgomery County and other law enforcement covered Putnam County emergency calls and helped staff the Putnam County Jail while area officers attended.Some didn’t know Baugh, 60, or his widow Lauralee, but it didn’t matter. They were there to give a hero’s sendoff to the fifth Hoosier officer to fall in the line of duty in a month’s time. Baugh was the first in 2004.He was a Putnam County Sheriff’s Captain and a former two-term sheriff. Baugh died from injuries caused by a car wreck last week when he was on his way to a minor traffic accident. He was the department’s longest serving deputy, having joined in 1971. Lauralee sat on a wood folding chair opposite the casket. Family and friends including the couple’s sons Jason and Jerrod flanked her. Jerrod is an Indiana excise officer.During his life, Baugh, an Indiana Law Enforcement Academy firearms instructor, touched many who came to pay respects. Some hugged a tearful Lauralee as they passed.A family member read aloud a letter Lauralee wrote to Gov. Joe Kernan, nominating Baugh for a Sagamore of the Wabash distinction. She said that about once a week, an officer stopped by or wrote an e-mail to thank Baugh for teaching them to value and respect their firearms.He was known for dressing as Santa and driving his cruiser to children’s houses. He cheated at Christmas law enforcement shopping trips with needy children by going over the limit. Baugh spent from his own pocket to make sure the kids had not just tennis shoes, but also penny loafers. He made sure they had two shiny new pennies to go in them and explained the coins’ value, she said.He was a community leader and served with distinction as a firefighter in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam era.Lauralee and family friend State Rep. Connie Lawson were working on the Sagamore award to surprise Baugh upon his retirement in April. Lawson instead read a proclamation from Kernan, making Jan. 7, 2004 a remembrance day for Baugh.Lawson recalled Baugh as kind, easygoing and compassionate. He had other sides too. Comrades said Baugh could get rough at the Academy if someone wasn’t being safe. But his “getting into their face” saved their lives, one said.And he wasn’t always nice on the street. “Sometimes police get a bad rap,” Gayle Raisor said. “They treat people a little rough sometimes. He did that, but he took care of the situation.”Raisor owns the Shell station at U.S. 231 and U.S. 40. He and Baugh have sons the same age and both belonged to Greencastle Christian Church. Baugh often stopped into the station as a friend and on duty.”He took care of things for me,” Raisor said. “He gave me his home phone number … It’s pretty disturbing. He was like family to me.”Raisor attended visitation in the church Tuesday, but had to be content with listening to the funeral over the station radio while he worked. As he listened, Raisor’s thoughts turned to working less and spending more time with his sons.”As Jim covered the accident, he had no idea his life would come to an end,” Marion County Sheriff’s Chaplain Mark Kassel said during the service. He looked out at the sea of blue, green and brown uniforms.”We never know. We must be prepared … I am thankful for the job you do in law enforcement and safety,” Kassel said, then borrowed from his favorite television drama, “Hill Street Blues.””Be careful out there.”
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