DECATUR -- A movement started by family members to rename a Decatur street in honor of a former Decatur police officer who died in the line of duty will become reality on Friday when East Street, which runs north and south through Decatur Cemetery, is officially renamed Setser Street in honor of Lester Kenneth Setser, who was shot and killed in Decatur 64 years ago, on June 5, 1951.
Setser, who was the constable of Decatur Township at the time, was shot to death on Maple Ave., not far from his home. Setser was not paid for his services to the community as a law-enforcement officer but volunteered. He also worked for Lloyd Peterson and farmed, raising chickens and milking cows.
A ceremony formally renaming the street will take place at 5:30 p.m. on Friday near the flag pole in the new section of Decatur Cemetery. The public is invited to attend.
The following is reprinted from the Sept. 20, 2006, issues of the Decatur Herald and Gentry Courier-Journal and tells the sad story of what happened in Decatur on that June day and in the years afterward:
Lives forever changed by a moment's actions
By Randy Moll
Tuesday, June 5, 1951, was a sad day for Decatur residents and a day which forever changed the lives of two families who lived there.
Jeweldine Williams, 87, still recalls the day when her husband, Lester Kenneth Setser, was shot and killed. She had three children from a previous marriage, two with Setser, and the couple was expecting another child in three months. Her oldest two boys, Jim, who was 13, and Bobby, who was 11, had just seen their father while out delivering newspapers in Decatur.
All the children took the Setser name and considered him their father.
"He was a dad to all of us," Jim Setser said.
"I heard the shots," Williams said, "but didn't know what it was until a neighbor told me."
The Setser family lived south of the Decatur Cemetery, and the shooting occurred at a home on the north side. By the time Williams found out what happened and got to see her husband, he had died of his wounds.
Decatur had been a rough little town in the years just prior to June of 1951, wrote John Terry, former pastor of the First Baptist Church there. "Gangs of young ruffians ... amused themselves by riding through the town at night and shooting out the store windows."
It was then that a group of Decatur citizens petitioned Arkansas Governor Sid McMath to appoint a town marshal to help citizens cope with the problems. Lester Kenneth Setser, who had served state-side in the U.S. Army during World War II, accepted the new law-enforcement position and began to clean up the little town.
In 1951, a strike occurred in the poultry processing plant Frank Pluss and Bill Simmons had purchased from the Petersons. Out-of-state labor organizers were there, prompted by a small group at the plant. The strike was "ugly from the beginning," wrote Terry.
On June 5, 1951, Setser was called to the poultry plant to remove an employee who had been "drinking heavily," wrote Terry. Setser walked the employee home since there was no jail in Decatur. Setser had done this on several other occasions and had also been threatened by the employee.
Setser turned the drunken man over to his wife and told her he would come back and take the man to Bentonville, the county seat, the next morning. When Setser turned to leave, the drunken plant employee emerged from the house and shot Setser in the back five times with a German Luger pistol.
Terry, who had been out of town earlier in the day, was told by a citizen yelling from the sidewalk that the town marshal had been shot. Terry stated he was told it was not at the poultry plant but at an employee's home. He drove the three blocks to the yard where Setser lay dying.
It was "a small house with a fenced-in yard. When I pulled up to the house," wrote Terry, "Kenneth (Setser) lay on his back about 15 feet from the door. (The man who shot Setser) was standing in the doorway holding a German Luger pistol.
"I was bent over Kenneth," wrote Terry, "when the employee said, 'I'm glad I done it.' He was still holding the gun."
"It was apparent that Kenneth was dying," wrote Terry, "with five bullets in the back."
Setser did manage to pull out his .38 caliber revolver and fire one shot during the shooting, according to Terry. His shot missed the assailant and hit the door-facing on the house.
According to Terry's account, it took about an hour for a deputy sheriff to arrive at the shooting scene.
"It was a most uncomfortable period of time," Terry wrote, and would have been more so had we known what was in the house. Just inside the house, on a chair, was a sub-machine gun with 17 live rounds in it, and there were five other loaded weapons in the house."
Terry's account continued: "From the outset, the police believed the murder was related to the strike. It was not. It was an unfortunate coincidence, but the one had nothing to do with the other.
"I had Kenneth's funeral two days later, and there seemed to be as many policemen in the little town as citizens. We probably had two dozen police in (among) the congregation because they still believed the matter was strike provoked and that there might be trouble. There was none.
"Needless to say, the tragedy left a mark on the church and upon the families concerned, especially (upon) the small children."
Setser had five children at the time; his sixth was born three months after his death. The shooter also had a number of children.
Terry wrote that the drunken employee was "acting as bold as possible" when he got into the police car to go to Bentonville but "looked like a beaten man" when he took the man's wife and children to the jail to visit him two days after Setser's funeral.
Terry described Setser's killer as one who liked to dress and act "the outlaw type."
Sestser was 32 years old at the time of his death and had served as Decatur's town constable for about two years.
The man who shot Setser attempted to plead not guilty by reason of insanity but was found sane after being observed for 30 days at the state hospital in Little Rock. He attempted suicide by cutting his left wrist on the morning of his trial. He was taken to the hospital in shock from blood loss and given a blood transfusion. Later that day, he was carried into the courtroom on a stretcher, where he pleaded guilty to the slaying.
The shooter was sentenced to life in prison but was later released after serving a part of his sentence. He lived for a time in nearby Gravette but has since died, according to family members of Setser.
The man's wife, who had been a school teacher in Decatur, moved away from the area but later returned when her husband was dying in the Gravette hospital. There she again met and visited with Williams, who was then employed at the hospital as a receptionist. They had a cordial visit, said Shirley Shook, Setser's daughter.
Though it was a tragic event, grandparents of the Setser children on both sides stepped in and helped with the children.
"They were like second parents to me," said Shook.
Kenny Setser, Jr., 4 at the time of his father's death, grew up to hold, for a number of years, the same constable position his father had held years earlier.
"Mom did a super job of raising us kids," said Kenny Setser, Jr. "But if it hadn't been for our grandparents, things would have been a lot harder."
Kenny Setser, Jr., also went and met his father's killer in the years after his release.
"I just had to go see the man, just to meet him," he said.
Williams remained in the Decatur area until recently. She remarried about nine years after her husband's death, to Buster Williams. The couple added two more children to the already-big family.
Williams worked for a time in the poultry plant and also operated the restaurant in Decatur after she remarried. When the hospital in Gravette opened, she worked there as a receptionist.
Though it has been 55 years since that tragic day, Williams and the Setser children, Jim, Bobby, Jeannie, Shirley, Kenny, and Brenda who was born three months after her father's death, still think on that day with hurt over what took place. They remember their father with pride in what he did for the community but with hurt over the husband and father they lost.
Some of the family members were privileged to see Lester Kenneth Setser's name inscribed on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C., when they visited there in 1994. In the same year, the family was also invited to attend the dedication to the state's memorial to fallen officers in Little Rock.
Setser's grave is in the Decatur Cemetery.
Editor's Note: Jeweldine Williams died on May 15, 2014, and is also buried in the Decatur Cemetery, next to Setser.
Setser's parents lived on Maple Street and owned land along East Street which is now part of the cemetery. According to Kenneth Setser, Jr., his Grandpa Setser walked into town each day and had to walk past the grave of his son to get there.
According to Setser, Jr., his father stopped at the telephone office and requested a sheriff's deputy come and pick up the man whom he had arrested but was told to take him home because no deputy was available at the time. There is also question regarding whether the man who shot Setser was actually drunk at the time of the shooting.
Setser grew up in the Gentry area and was a graduate of Gentry High School.
General News on 06/03/2015