Cook County, Ga.’s first woman sheriff … in 1938!

Cook County, Ga.’s first woman sheriff … in 1938!

By Charles Shiver

Following a terrible tragedy, Mrs. Bernice Jones served as sheriff of Cook County, albeit for a few weeks, 87 years ago.

Ordinary A.A. Parrish appointed Mrs. Jones to the office after her father, Sheriff Virgil Rooks, died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of 45 on March 25, 1938. Mrs. Jones agreed to serve until her successor was elected and qualified. She was not a candidate for Sheriff Rooks’ unexpired term. She was only 25 years old.

Born April 5, 1892, Virgil Rooks was elected sheriff of Cook County three times. During his time in office, he enforced the law against criminals ranging from bootleggers to killers. The Cook County Historical Society recently published an account of the Nov. 11, 1930, murder trial of Wright Selph Jr., accused of shooting Leonard Selph. Sheriff Rooks testified during the trial, saying that “the officers were met with a dead [body] so bloody they didn’t know right away who it was.” (The jury found Wright Selph Jr. guilty of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced him to between three and five years in prison.) Sheriff Rooks and his officers also responded to the February 1938 armed robbery of a filling station in Adel, during which Curtis Ashley, a 16-year-old Hahira youth, was kidnapped at gunpoint. Judge Will R. Smith imposed the death penalty (by electric chair) on the three young men who pleaded guilty to robbing the station. One of the convicted robbers was 16 years old. However, the death sentences were later commuted to life in prison after a public outcry.

The Associated Press ran a brief article about Sheriff Rooks’ death, which was published in the March 27, 1938, issue of The Tallahassee Democrat. According to the article, “Virgil Rooks, 45, three times sheriff of Cook county, was found dead in his automobile on a by-road near here, a bullet wound in his head. His pistol lay nearby.

“The body was discovered by a searching party organized when the officer failed to return home.

“Deputy Sheriff J.B. Ward, who headed the search, said a note addressed to Mrs. Rooks was in the automobile.”

Some citizens, however, continued to doubt that the fatal wound was in fact self-inflicted. “I remember when Sheriff Rooks died, and my dad did not believe that he killed himself,” an older resident stated many decades later.

An article in the April 1, 1938, issue of The Adel News was headlined, “Fine Tribute Paid Sheriff Virgil Rooks Last Sunday Afternoon – Probably Largest Funeral Cortege Ever Seen In Cook County Gathered at the Methodist Church.”

According to the article, “The sudden death of Sheriff Rooks on Friday afternoon cast a pall of sorrow over this section. He was widely known and popular and many people are saddened by his going away. He was reared near Fort Valley and came to what is now Cook county when a young man. He engaged in farming a number of years and later was in the oil business. He was serving his third term as sheriff and was a popular official. He was held in high esteem by his fellow officers throughout south Georgia and had friends all over the state, as attested by the messages of condolence which came to the family on Saturday when friends had learned of his death. Mr. Rooks was a kind-hearted man, generous to all, and none ever called on him for assistance without getting it. His charities were many but were so quietly given that few knew anything of their magnitude. He had a great sympathizing soul and was a man of the best impulses. … Perhaps no man in the county will be missed more than he.”

Sheriff Rooks was buried in Adel’s Woodlawn Cemetery. His wife Adelle Rooks passed away on Sept. 9, 1960, and was buried next to him. She never remarried.

According to articles detailing Mrs. Jones’ appointment as sheriff, “Mrs. Jones has been in the office several years and is familiar with the functions and her appointment gives general satisfaction. It is understood that she will not be a candidate for the unexpired term. That she will look well after every detail of the office during her tenure there is no doubt. …

“Sheriff’s Office In Most Satisfactory Condition – Mr. H.H. Burnett Jr. of Waycross, auditor, and his assistants who checked the office of the lamented Sheriff Rooks completed their task Wednesday night and in a conversation with the editor of this paper [W.T. Shytle] Thursday morning over the telephone from Waycross Mr. Burnett stated that the office was in a most satisfactory condition with everything fully accounted for.

“This statement is made in justice to the late Sheriff Rooks and his daughter who has kept the books for years and the News is glad to give publicity to the statement of the auditor.”

One of the criminal cases that Sheriff Jones handled (concerning bond paperwork only) during her brief time in office was the slaying of B.J. Hubbard at his filling station/dance hall named “Journey’s End” in northern Cook County. The three defendants, “the Sweat boys,” attacked Hubbard by striking him with a slot machine and choking him by his necktie (believed by a Tifton undertaker to be the cause of death), according to witnesses. Mrs. Hubbard stated that the Sweat boys had objected to her husband trying to close up the place about midnight, but the Sweats claimed that they were first attacked by Hubbard, who hit one of them in the head with a bottle.

On April 19, 1938, W.I. Daughtrey was elected sheriff to fill the unexpired term of Rooks. Daughtrey had served Cook County as its first sheriff, continuing in that office for 10 years. The same newspaper issue that covered Daughtrey’s election reported that Mr. Joe Atkinson had been shot at six times at his service station. Five bullets struck the fuel tank which he had jumped behind seconds earlier, and one bullet hit the tank’s hose. So it went in Adel, back nearly nine decades ago! (And we think times are troubled now? Nothing new under the sun.)

Bernice L. Rooks Jones passed away at the relatively young age of 48, on Nov. 6, 1960. She also is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, near her husband, Dallace C. Jones. Mr. Jones, who passed away at the age of 69 on July 12, 1979, served as mayor of the City of Adel from 1963 to 1967.

Thanks to Janet Alligood for making me aware of Mrs. Jones’ service as Cook County’s first and only female sheriff. Sheriff Rooks was Mrs. Alligood’s grandfather, and Sheriff Jones was her aunt.