METROPOLITAN/OBITUARIES 

  The Dallas Morning News 

        Friday, December 20, 2002

 

 Page 37A

 

 

 

Officer had been decorated for public service in Dallas

 

By JOE SIMNACHER
Staff Writer

 

During this 15 years with the Dallas Police Department, Officer Leon Cornelius Brannon often went beyond the call of duty.

 

"His thing was to reach out to kids who didn't have a promising future and to help encourage them to go to college to get an education," saidOfficer Velicia Watts.

"He was adamant and big on that."

He helped to pay their college expenses out of his own pocket and sometimes pitched in on the utility bills for residents on his beat, she said.

Officer Brannon, 51, died Dec. 13 of a heart attack at his Ovilla home.

Services will be at 1 p.m. Friday at First United Methodist Church in Cushing, Okla.  He will be buried in Silver Star Lodge Cemetery in Cushing.
Dallas services were Wednesday.

Born in Cushing, Okla., he was a graduate of Cushing High School, where he excelled in basketball and baseball.

After serving four years in the Navy, he receive a bachelor's degree from Prairie View A&M University, where he was a star on the basketball and baseball teams, his family said.

He was a minor pitcher with the Philadelphia Phillies farm system before moving to Dallas and working for the Boy Scouts of American and the Bethlehem
Foundation.  He joined the Dallas Police Department in August 1987.

From September 1994 until January 2000, Mr. Brannon was assigned to the community policing unit with Officer Watts.

"He was such a community person," she said, adding that her partner started basketball and after-school programs as well as activities for senior citizens.

He was nominated to be Officer of the Year and received the Shining Star Ethics Award for his civic contributions.  He also received the Law
Enforcement Achievement Award for Public Service.

At the time of his death, he was assigned to Dallas Love Field.

He was a member of Progressive Baptist Church East and had recently joined Missionary Baptist Church.

Officer Brannon is survived by his wife, Jeanna Brannon of Dallas; son Chauncey Brannon of Fort Thomas, Ky.; daughter Anaucia Brannon of Dallas; brothers Raymond Brannon of Phoenix, Jimmy Brannon and Kermit Brannon of Tulsa, Okla., and Terry Brannon of Cushing, Okla.; sister Pamela Brannon Smith of Tulsa; and one grandchild.