ADAMSVILLE – Dwana Pusser was in the museum honoring the legacy of her father, former McNairy County Sheriff and Adamsville Police Chief Buford Pusser, on Wednesday, for the last time. Dwana died Wednesday night.
The museum is in her childhood home, with her bedroom still the same as a girl growing up for visitors to see, preserved as it was in 1974 when her father died.
Current McNairy County Sheriff Guy Buck said foul play isn’t suspected in Pusser’s death, but her body, which was found in her home, was sent to Memphis Medical Center for an autopsy.
Shock and sadness gripped Mullis and Pusser family members in the museum Thursday morning.
“Dwana was a kind woman and compassionate, and she was passionate about doing what she could for law enforcement and her father’s legacy,” Mullis said.
Dwana, 57, was 16 years old when her father died in a one-car crash coming home from the fair in 1973. He’d built a reputation as a sheriff tough on crime and moonshine in McNairy County, without using a gun too often. The first "Walking Tall" movie about his life was made before his death. A pair of sequels were released in the years since.
“Because of that legacy he’d left, law enforcement was something that was really important to her,” Mullis said. “She traveled all over, talking with law enforcement agencies, talking about her father.
“And there were plenty of officers, even younger ones now, who told her they became law enforcement officers because they were inspired from watching the "Walking Tall" movies.”
Years ago I read what was presented as a fact vs fiction about the original Walking Tall movie. One thing I recall was the severe beating Buford took early in the movie at a roadhouse in his home area did not happen where or when as the portrayed in the movie but actually happened in a rough and tumble type bar somewhere around the Chicago, IL - Gary, IN area where he was doing some regional wrestling as "Buford the Bull" well before the Walking Tall story began.
Years ago I read what was presented as a fact vs fiction about the original Walking Tall movie. One thing I recall was the severe beating Buford took early in the movie at a roadhouse in his home area did not happen where or when as the portrayed in the movie but actually happened in a rough and tumble type bar somewhere around the Chicago, IL - Gary, IN area where he was doing some regional wrestling as "Buford the Bull" well before the Walking Tall story began.
.
Yeah, the movie was "Hollywood"...
But Buford Pusser was a technical advisor on the movie, and the movie did have quite a bit of fact to it... only you know how Hollywood has to screw up facts.
Years ago I read what was presented as a fact vs fiction about the original Walking Tall movie. One thing I recall was the severe beating Buford took early in the movie at a roadhouse in his home area did not happen where or when as the portrayed in the movie but actually happened in a rough and tumble type bar somewhere around the Chicago, IL - Gary, IN area where he was doing some regional wrestling as "Buford the Bull" well before the Walking Tall story began.
.
Yeah, the movie was "Hollywood"...
But Buford Pusser was a technical advisor on the movie, and the movie did have quite a bit of fact to it... only you know how Hollywood has to screw up facts.
They still do.
There were a lot of holes in the movie, but it's Hollywood.
A company I worked for back in early '70s had a branch plant down there in the same area where Buford Pusser was sheriff. Our truck driver made regular overnight runs back and forth between plants two or three times a week. He told us from getting to know and be pretty good friends with some of the branch plant employees and some locals too who had been born and raised around there that not many cared much for him before he ever became Sheriff and even less after he did.
A company I worked for back in early '70s had a branch plant down there in the same area where Buford Pusser was sheriff. Our truck driver made regular overnight runs back and forth between plants two or three times a week. He told us from getting to know and be pretty good friends with some of the branch plant employees and some locals too who had been born and raised around there that not many cared much for him before he ever became Sheriff and even less after he did.
My cousin was a Tennessee highway patrol assigned to McNairy county during the time Pusser was Sheriff. I try not to speak ill of the dead so I’ll just say that Joe did not care for Pusser AT ALL and said there was very little factual about the movies.
