William Roy Posey; photo courtesy of William Terrell Posey.

From the Haleyville Advertiser, September 10, 1954
Sheriff Roy Posey Dead of Heart Attack

Tragedy Thursday struck the Winston County Sheriff's office for the second time in three years when Sheriff Roy Posey suffered a fatal heart attack while raiding a liquor still.

Sheriff Posey was on a raid shortly after 3 p.m. in the deep woods near Natural Bridge with a party of other officers. He complained about the pain in his chest and fellow officers summoned by shortwave radio a Hill Funeral Home ambulance from Haleyville.

Dr. William K. Wilson, who was at his farm at the time, also was summoned.

Because of the difficult terrain, the ambulance could not drive all the way to the site where the sheriff lay stricken. He was placed on a stretcher and was being carried to the ambulance when he died. He was 48.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Pebble Church with interment in the adjoining cemetery, Hill Funeral Home directing.

Surviving are the wife, Mrs. Vara Posey; one son, Terrell Posey, a student at the University of Alabama; the mother, Mrs. Ella Batchelor, Tuscaloosa; two brothers, Harvey of Chattanooga and Doyle of New Castle, Wyoming; a sister, Mrs. Dee Gilbert of Haleyville; a half-brother, Johnnie Batchelor of Haleyville, and three half-sisters, Mrs. J.C. Frazier of Jasper, Mrs. Gertis Aderholt of Haleyville, and Mrs. George Jackson of Saxton, Mo.

Coroner J.R. (Red) Nichols will be the acting sheriff until Governor Gordon Persons fills the vacancy.


"He was born 1906/died 1954 on heart attack in line of duty. He was son of Will C. and Ella Elizabeth Donaldson Posey. Will was son of Appleton Posey (1854 Coosa Co, AL/1906 at Posey's Mill. Appleton's grandfather was Squire Posey, War of 1812 soldier for whom a cenotaph has been placed at the Posey's Mill Cemetery on Winston/Franklin line. Will C. Posey married Martha Hutchinson before Ella. Roy's son, William Terrell Posey, is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross, Silver Star for service as a pilot in Viet Nam. He is now retired and lives in Goldsboro, NC."


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