Texas Ranger Memorial Cross to Be Dedicated at Grave of Famous Local ‘Sheriff Jim’

The public is invited to a Texas Ranger Memorial Cross Dedication for former Fayette County Sheriff T.J. (Jim) Flournoy on Saturday June 25 at 10 a.m. at the La Grange City Cemetery.

The Texas Ranger Memorial Cross Program is sponsored in part by a grant from the Texas Historical Foundation.

Any questions, please contact the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office at (979) 968-5856.

Here’s a little more about the famous sheriff from the United Press International obituary on him after he died in 1982:

Services will be held for retired Fayette County Sheriff T.J. Flournoy, the lawman made famous in the Broadway show and movie ‘The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.’

Flournoy, died in his home following a long history of heart problems, was 80. He will be buried in a cemetery in the county where he served as sheriff for 34 years until 1980.

Flournoy, whose character was depicted in the movie and show as Sheriff Ed Earl Dodd, outspokenly defended the fabled Chicken Ranch brothel when it was closed in 1973.

Known by local citizens as ‘Sheriff Jim,’ Flournoy was a former Texas Ranger who criticized state officials and the ‘outside interference’ that closed the 129-year-old bordello, known locally as Edna’s Boarding House.

When then-Gov. Dolph Briscoe ordered the brothel closed, Flournoy said if his constituents wanted it shut down, they would not have kept electing him.

‘If the people didn’t like the way I ran the county, I wouldn’t be around,’ he said in 1973.

The brothel was closed after reports and publicity from the late Houston television reporter Marvin Zindler. In recent years, Flournoy rarely spoke of the brothel, the publicity or the fame generated by the incident.

Zindler said that Flournoy was a ‘great sheriff who thought he was doing the right thing with the house of prostitution.’

‘I never expected this thing to go on for a decade,’ said Zindler, who kept a framed picture of Flournoy on his desk at the television station. ‘A lot of people made a lot of money on this. But the old man was really a great guy.’