Fifty-four years ago on this day, a police officer, army veteran, father, husband and a man working two part jobs in addition to being a police officer, was shot and killed in the suburbs of Dallas, TX while investigating a murder. Everyone remembers the victim of that murder, lets take a moment to remember a man doing his job, supporting his family, married to his high school sweetheart...

Officer J. D. Tippett.

From Wikipedia:

Tippit was born near the town of Annona in Red River County, Texas. He was one of seven children (two girls and five boys) to Edgar Lee, a farmer, and Lizzie Mae Tippit (née Rush).^[3 The Tippit and Rush families were of English ancestry, their ancestors having immigrated to Virginia from England by 1635. Tippit attended public schools through the tenth grade and was raised as a Baptist, a faith he practiced for the rest of his life. He entered the United States Army on July 21, 1944, and was assigned to the 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the US 17th Airborne Division. He saw combat in Operation Varsity, the airborne crossing of the Rhine River in March 1945, earning a Bronze Star, and remained on active duty until June 20, 1946.

Tippit married his high school sweetheart, Marie Frances Gasway, on December 26, 1946. The couple had three children: Charles Allan (born 1950), Brenda Kay (born 1953) and Curtis Glenn (born 1958). That same year, he went to work for the Dearborn Stove Company. He next worked for Sears, Roebuck and Company in the installation department from March 1948 to September 1949 when he was laid off. The couple moved to Lone Star, Texas, where Tippit attempted to farm and raise cattle.

In January 1950, Tippit enrolled in a Veterans Administration vocational training school at Bogata, Texas. He left the school in June 1952. After facing several setbacks as a farmer and rancher, Tippit decided to become a police officer. The Tippit family then moved to Dallas where Tippit was hired by the Dallas Police Department as a patrolman in July 1952. During his time with the Dallas Police Department, Officer Tippit was cited twice for bravery.

At the time of his death, Tippit was assigned to Dallas Police vehicle #10, had badge #848 and was earning a salary of $490 a month (worth $3,833 in 2015) as a Dallas police officer. He was also working two part-time jobs; he worked at Austin's Barbecue restaurant on Friday and Saturday nights and at the Stevens Park Theatre on Sundays.

Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another."

―Ernest Hemingway