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Sheriff Fay F. Brown’s Badge: Jailer Jess Blanpied

January 1, 2020 by Jim Potter 2 Comments

http://jimpotterauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Sheriff-Fay-F.-Browns-Badge-Episode-6.mp3

· Sheriff Fay F. Brown’s Badge: Jailer Jess Blanpied ·

It’s Monday, January 17, 1927, in Hutchinson, Kansas. Sheriff Fay. F. Brown’s Badge is down at the sheriff’s office pinned to the sheriff’s vest. Cora Brown, matron and cook at the Reno County Jail, and Jess Blanpied, an old-time county jailer, are in the jail’s kitchen.

“Jess, how are your children?” asked Matron-Cook Cora Brown, as she sat down at the kitchen table.

“I’m glad you asked,” Jailer Jess Blanpied responded, stirring his coffee. “You may recall, I’ve got four children: two girls and two boys; the girls are the oldest. Three of our children live in Los Angeles, California, including my oldest, Jessie. Today’s her birthday.”

“How old is she?” asked Cora

“Thirty-nine. She was born in 1888, a year after Hattie and I married.

“Jessie and her husband, he’s a prominent interior decorator, were married in Newton and have the most beautiful and talented girl, Harriette Jane, who takes after Jessie. As a child, Jessie was active with solo performances, singing and playing the piano. Now she plays the piano as she accompanies Harriette, who is quite the dancer. My beautiful little blonde-haired granddaughter, only eleven, might be in a movie production this year.”

“Says you! Maybe we’ll see her at a local theater,” encouraged Cora.

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” replied Jess. “They visit here, but one of these days I’d like to return to sunny California. I was there in 1915, in Hollywood, when my granddaughter was born. That was a few years after my wife died here in Hutchinson.

“Sorry for your loss, I’ll bet you miss her,” offered Cora as she sipped her coffee.

“Every day,” said Jess, “she left too soon, but we had twenty-five glorious years together. She was a Christian woman, admired by all.

“Jessie reminded me in a recent letter how I nearly met Tom Mix, the cowboy movie star,” continued Jess.

“Tom Mix!” exclaimed Cora. “Says you! Fay and I enjoy watching him in the Zane Grey movies. Last year we saw both the “Riders of the Purple Sage” and “The Rainbow Trail” at the Deluxe Theater. What do you think of Tony, the Wonder Horse? And how did you almost meet Tom Mix?”

“Like I said,” responded Jess, “Jessie’s husband had been hired by some famous actors to decorate their homes. He knew Tom Mix, and when the actor and Jessie were talking, she mentioned to him about my years as sheriff in Harvey County, Kansas. He wanted to meet me, especially after my daughter told him I had single-handedly captured four bank robbers.”

“Oh my goodness, Jess, I’m learning so much about you,” said Cora. “This jailhouse is feeling more like home. And you’ve helped me so much already, especially by selecting the best trustees. Thanks again.”

“We have a saying here: ‘never trust a trustee,’” said Jess, “but we can’t run a jail without them, unless you and Fay want to hire a staff out of your salary.” Jess laughed.

“We’re not getting rich,” said Cora, “but we have a roof over our head, and heat on a cold winter day, like today. So far, the trustees have been extremely helpful. I don’t have to peel potatoes, wash the dishes, mop the floors, or do laundry.” 

“It feels like home with your cooking,” said Jess. “If Fay runs for reelection in two years, your reputation as a cook will no doubt increase his popularity. Former prisoners who have served short sentences, who think they just might return to jail, want a good meal if they visit here again. They’ll vote for Fay because of you.”

“Unless they get sent to Lansing,” said Cora.

“I’m really glad to have your fresh eyes around here,” continued Jess. “You’ll see things we’ve been missing and make improvements. I’d like to tell you a little more about Jessie and Tom Mix.”

“Yessir, I want to hear more,” encouraged Cora. “You haven’t told me about the other children yet, only about Jessie, your favorite.”

“First child,” said Jess. “After my daughter told Tom Mix about her living in the jailhouse as a teenager, he kept asking her questions. He thought Jessie’s upbringing in a pokey could be incorporated into a script for a western movie involving a prisoner escape and kidnapping from a Kansas hoosegow. I don’t know if Jessie told him about the slop buckets the inmates used or the putrid smells we had to endure day and night. I’ll bet not.”

“This is fascinating,” said Cora, “and I’m so glad we’ve got indoor plumbing at our Victorian Bastille.”

“Last thing about Tom Mix,” said Jess. “He was friends with Wyatt Earp who had moved to L.A. part-time. Tom Mix asked Jessie if I’d ever run into Earp, since it was well known that he had been on the police force when Wichita was wild.

“Jessie explained to Tom Mix that I was only a child when Wyatt Earp was working in Wichita, but Tom Mix said it would still be great fun to have us all sit down together so he could hear stories about the taming of the west. We never got together, Tom Mix returned to Arizona, but that’s how I almost met Tom Mix and Wyatt Earp. Did you know Earp’s still alive, with a residence in L.A.?”

“No, I figured he was dead,” said Cora. “Jess, you ought to write a book about your life.”

“No chance of that, I’m too busy living it,” Jess responded. “Instead, let me give you the condensed version of my three other children and then we can get back to work. By the way, lunch was delicious.”

“Thanks,” said Cora. “It was a group effort.”

“Bernice, my second child, is also married,” said Jess. “She was born in 1891, so she’d be thirty-five. She and her husband, a surveyor, have a boy and a girl. Jean’s about twelve, and Robert’s eight.

“My first boy was dealt a tough hand,” said Jess. “He’s not of sound mind and can’t manage his affairs. Harry’s at the Topeka state hospital; been there for years. He’s thirty-three, but looks a lot older. I imagine you’re about his age.”

“Good guess,” replied Cora. “I’m thirty-two. Fay’s thirty-five, like your Bernice. He thinks he’s the youngest sheriff to be elected in Reno County, but we’re not sure about that.”

“If I were Fay, I wouldn’t wager my monthly paycheck on that,” said Jess. “I’ve known a few sheriffs about his age, including Will Long and K. C. Beck, and who knows about the earlier ones?

“Our baby, Carl, is twenty-three,” said Jess. “He’s been living with Bernice and her family in Glendale, California. He’s ‘Uncle Carl’ to the children.”

“You sure keep up with your family,” said Cora.

“Jess,” she continued, “before we quit, let me remind you how I first heard about you.”

“Did I arrest you for speeding or being in violation of the prohibitory law?” asked Jess.

Cora ignored his question. “Your niece, Blanche Blanpied, and I met in 1913 when we both worked at the Missouri and Kansas Telephone Company. She was a stenographer and I was an operator. This was before Southwestern Bell bought the company and before I even knew Fay Brown was alive.”

“My, it’s a small world,” said Jess. “Blanche used to visit us in Newton and stay overnight at our jailhouse.”

Cora agreed and remarked, “Jess, thanks again for agreeing to stay on the county payroll. Fay appreciates your help and so do I.”

“You’re welcome,” said Jess. “I know you’re not just off the boat and no hick, but I’m glad to see you adapting so quickly to this work. Other sheriffs have told me that some live-in matron-cooks, even when they’re Mrs. Sheriff, would rather throw away the jailhouse key than sleep a night in a pokey or cook for two dozen criminals.”

“I’m still learning,” said Cora, “I’m hoping that Fay and I can continue seeing a movie once a week. It’s a nice diversion for both of us. They’re more Tom Mix movies we want to enjoy, especially ‘The Great K & A Train Robbery,’ whenever it gets to town, maybe this summer.”

“Let me know if you hear about a movie starring Harriette Jane Northfoss,” said Jess.

“Yessir, I will,” replied Cora.

“When that happens,” Cora concluded, “we’ll invite you to attend the movie with us. The undersheriff can watch the prisoners.”

***

The Kansas Authors Club www.kansasauthors.org is a statewide organization that encourages and supports great writing. It’s divided into seven districts. In Hutchinson, Reno County (part of District 6), we have monthly meetings at Hutchinson Community College. http://www.hutchcc.edu You’re invited. Questions? Contact Jim Potter, jim@copintheclassroom.com

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Filed Under: Blog posts Tagged With: Cora Brown, Deluxe Theater, Fay Brown, Harriette Jane Northfoss, Jess Blanpied, Jessie Blanpied, Jessie Blanpied Northfoss, Jim Potter, Kansas Authors Club, Missouri and Kansas Telephone Company, Reno County Jail, Reno County Sheriff, Riders of the Purple Sage, Sheriff Fay Brown, Sheriff Fay Brown's Badge, Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, The Great K & A Train Robbery, The Rainbow Trail, Tom Mix, Wyatt Earp

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Comments

  1. Alex says

    January 1, 2020 at 9:50 am

    Wonderful, rich radio drama!

    Reply
    • Jim Potter says

      January 1, 2020 at 10:01 am

      Thanks for your encouragement, Alex!

      Reply

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What People Are Saying

Denise Low, author of Jackalope (Red Mountain Press)

Jim Potter is a cop, retired, but he brings deep understanding of this job to his novel Taking Back the Bullet: Trajectories of Self-Discovery. This layered novel has literary dimensions as characters explore crisis situations. Congratulations to this fine writer for his debut novel.

Rebecca from Proud Police Wife

Taking Back the Bullet is an emotional, yet captivating novel. Jim Potter does a superb job of intertwining each character and putting their individual identities on display. All law enforcement storylines are a true reflection of Potter’s years as a police officer because they are realistic and relatable. This is a book I highly recommend.

Dennis Perrin, educator

Masterful storytelling, exquisite character development, so real as to HURT and HOPE, a real page turner. Begs for stage, screenwriters, and visual episodic development a.k.a. TV series . . . Thanks Jim Potter for telling it like it is AND providing us visions of how it could be. Well done!

Rebecca Schillaci

As a former law enforcement officer, I found the story very relatable as it details the life of a law enforcement officer and the struggles some face throughout their careers. . . Taking Back the Bullet is a journey of understanding, respect, and forgiveness . . .

Sheryl Remar

I enjoyed the different stories of this book because Tom, James, and Suanna, the three main characters, represent in their own way the different struggles with themselves and society’s idea of what is normal.

John & Cindy Morrill, 20 years Air Force retired, 17 years law enforcement

I enjoyed your book. When I am looking for a new read, I always read the first page, last page and choose a random page somewhere in the middle before I decide to buy it. You had me on all three pages. I also like reading a book where you can relate to the characters and the settings in which they live and work. It makes a story more realistic if you can say, I am familiar with the area; I know where that town is or I have traveled that street. It was easy to relate to the characters. In one way or another, I have met them all somewhere in my journeys.

Judy Hawk

. . . I was impressed with the Native American information as well as the depth of character development . . . .

Wynona Winn, PhD, retired school superintendent

Three main characters walk different paths but with the same destination – each coping with his or her self-discovery, self-identity, and self-realization. Much like their earlier counterparts – Huck Finn and Holden Caulfield – their journeys are often joyous, often tedious and often tragic.

Diana Dester

Good story line, building the characters along the way. Great job!

Deb Theis, LSCSW, clinical therapist/hypnotherapist

Jim Potter has done it again! After his book, Cop in the Classroom: Lessons I’ve Learned, Tales I’ve Told, Jim has written another great work. In Taking Back the Bullet: Trajectories of Self-Discovery, Jim Potter takes us on an insightful journey into the lives and relationships of numerous characters. Jim is such a talented storyteller that the reader quickly becomes immersed and has a ‘bonding experience’ with each of the characters, feeling their joy, fear, passion and pain. Jim’s novel speaks to the empowerment of persistence with the characters as they work through their trials. As a therapist, I appreciated the heartfelt struggles from each of the characters and their diversity. I also found value in the novel’s understanding of society’s misunderstanding of both mental health and other conditions in which people struggle. The novel contains rich exposure to various realities that many of us do not know about . . . but should. When I finished this captivating novel, I was wanting to read the sequel! It was an honor and a wonderful, mesmerizing experience reading this book. Congratulations, Jim!

Jane Holzrichter

I finished it last night around midnight. What a great piece of work. It kept me intrigued all the way to the end.

Sean McArdle, Winchester, England

Retired police officer Potter’s novel centres on very disparate characters and through the tried and tested means of gradually introducing each one, builds a sense of anticipation about what is going to happen to them. This often used methodology is not easy to do well but is superbly handled by Potter who knows how to give enough detail to bring the characters to life, yet not too much so as to slow down the pace of the developing story. A climactic event affects the main characters and it is at this point Potter’s deep knowledge of people and police procedures really hits home; page by page we read how a seemingly simple, though terrible occurrence, can have huge consequences. To Potter’s credit the story does not have a completely conclusive or simplistic ending. Instead it leaves the reader thinking about how the events of a single minute can affect lives forever. I would whole heartedly recommend this book not as a crime novel or even as a novel about crime but as a beautiful and positive affirmation about what it is to be human and how ultimately it is relationships which matter more than events.

Morgan Penner

Taking Back the Bullet is a novel that provides the reader with a window into the world of law enforcement. As the novel unfolds, the reader is able to see how split-second decisions alter the lives of the main characters in the story. Taking Back the Bullet also explores how humanity is impacted by mental illness. One of my favorite quotes from Taking Back the Bullet is “We’re all just a critical moment from being disabled or mentally ill, and we don’t want to think about it.” The novel also provides the reader an opportunity to gain a better understanding of how mental illness impacts the individuals, their family, friends, and society. Taking Back the Bullet is a story of forgiveness and overcoming life’s struggles and tragedies.

Steve Becker

I’m impressed. It was an excellent read. . . . I hope you continue with more projects in the future.

Larry Kruckman, anthropologist

Jim Potter displays ethnographic skills in Taking Back the Bullet: Trajectories of Self-Discovery, creating vivid scenes and fascinating characters. The Greeks had a word for subcultures and people’s behavior: ‘ethos,’ or ‘ways of being.’ In colorful, sometimes marvelous detail, this novel captures various people and settings . . . the ethos of rural Kansas: a jail, art fair, powwow, rehab center, courtroom, albinos, and even someone in the throes of postpartum depression. So detailed are the descriptions that they must be drawn from the author’s personal experience. Besides the artfully created characters such as the struggling jailer and husband Tom Jennings, local artist Jesse Thomas, and Native American Joe Morningcloud, there is a tight story line that grabs your attention and won’t let go. Human tensions, love, conflict, joys and sorrows are all there. Magically, all the many pieces come together in a final crescendo, giving hope that even when we find ourselves in big trouble we can survive. This is a novel I highly recommend!

Larry Kruckman
Anthropologist
Karleen Wilson-Moon

Terrific story relevant to today’s social issues . . . well written . . . likable characters . . . insightful perspective from an insider in law enforcement.

Karleen Wilson-Moon

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