FERGUSON: Benefit to county’s rural residents

runoff election in a threeway race in the Republican primary. There was no Democratic opponent, so he took the helm of the Sheriff’s Office on Jan. 1, 2003. He retired at the end of 2012.

Pea Ridge Police Chief Lynn Hahn posted on Facebook about Ferguson and said he was saddened to hear about his death.

“He gave me my first shot in law enforcement, and I worked with him for several years,” Hahn said in the post. “He had his ups and downs, like us all, but he was a good man, and served the citizens of this state for 43 years. RIP Sheriff.”

Other former deputies who worked for Ferguson also posted about his death.

“Sad to hear of former Sheriff Keith Ferguson’s passing this morning,” Glenn Latham, a former deputy posted. “R.I.P. Keith - you were one of a kind.”

Don Kendall, a longtime friend of Ferguson, said in 2012 at Ferguson’s retirement ceremony while Ferguson was a state trooper, he placed his life in harm’s way on different occasions, including aiding another officer to save a fellow police officer during the Frankie Parker standoff at the Rogers Police Department on Nov. 5, 1984.

Kendall referred to Ferguson as his best friend Saturday on Facebook.

“He was a very good man and he was a good sheriff,” said Tom Allen, a longtime Benton County justice of the peace. “His heart was for law enforcement.”

Susan Anglin, another Benton County justice of the peace, remembers Ferguson giving her a tour of the county jail.

“That has helped me on the years that I have served on the court,” she said.

She said Ferguson was a benefit to the county’s rural residents.

“He understood rural life,” said Anglin, who called him a dedicated public servant.

“He had a very long lawenforcement history,” she said. “I have great respect for him as a person and as a member of law enforcement.”