Young County says farewell to former Sheriff Bryan Walls

Hundreds of friends, family members, law enforcement officials and community members gathered at First Baptist Church, Pioneer Cemetery and Young County Arena to remember and say goodbye to former Young County Sheriff Bryan Walls on Friday.

Walls died Monday, May 27, in Fort Worth. He served as Young County Sheriff from 2005 to 2016. Prior to his time as Sheriff, Walls also served in the Graham Police Department.

Funeral services were held at 10 a.m., followed by Walls last ride through Graham to Pioneer Cemetery where internment followed. A celebration of Walls’ life was held at Young County Arena from 1 to 6 p.m.

Current Sheriff Travis Babcock reminisced about his time working with Walls during an interview with The Graham Leader.

“I met Bryan Walls in 2006, that is when I went to work for him,” Babcock said. “He was the type of person to give you the opportunity to better yourself if that’s what you wanted to do. I know that there was a couple of us that went to the academy to be peace officers and he did give us that opportunity to go to work for him as one of his deputies.”

Babcock added Walls was the one who installed the family type atmosphere at the Sheriff’s office which is still in place today.

“If I had one word to (describe Walls), I would say he was humble,” Babcock said. “He was a person who really cared about his employees and the people in Young County.”

During interment, Walls’ son Tyler called out his end of watch over the dispatch and through a Young County Sheriff’s deputies’ vehicle speaker.

For the rest of the story, see the Wednesday, June 5 edition of The Graham Leader.