Death
Pusser died on August 21, 1974 from injuries sustained in a one-car automobile accident. Earlier in the day, Pusser contracted with Bing Crosby Productions in Memphis to portray himself in the sequel to Walking Tall. That evening, Pusser, returning home alone from the McNairy County Fair in his specially and powerfully modified Corvette, struck an embankment at high speed, ejecting him from the vehicle. The car caught fire and burned to such an extent that the cause of the accident was not conclusive. Speculation as to cause included unfounded rumors of sabotage to the steering mechanism and the tie-rods but ignored a .18 blood alcohol content and witnesses who saw him drinking at the fair. The Tennessee State Trooper who worked the accident, Paul Ervin, later became McNairy County sheriff. Both Pusser's mother, Helen (1908–1987) and his daughter, Dwana (1961–) believed he was murdered. Dwana, who was a passenger in another car, came upon the scene of the accident moments later.
No autopsy of Pusser's body was performed. As sheriff, Pusser survived seven stabbings and eight shootings.
Pusser's memorial service was held at the Adamsville Church of Christ.
Read more about this topic: Buford Pusser
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“We achieve “active” mastery over illness and death by delegating all responsibility for their management to physicians, and by exiling the sick and the dying to hospitals. But hospitals serve the convenience of staff not patients: we cannot be properly ill in a hospital, nor die in one decently; we can do so only among those who love and value us. The result is the institutionalized dehumanization of the ill, characteristic of our age.”
—Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)
“To die, to sleep—
No more, and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep.
To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil
Must give us pause.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“That piecemeal peace is poor peace. What pure peace allows
Alarms of wars, the daunting wars, the death of it?”
—Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889)