It was 69 years ago today the first Kansas Highway Patrol trooper was killed in the line of duty.

Forty-one-year-old Maurice Plummer was assigned as a trooper in Hays.  The fatality occurred five miles west of Russell.

According to a memory page on the KHP Facebook page, Maurice Robert Plummer was born in Perry, Kansas, on August 1, 1902. He graduated from Perry High School in 1921. Prior to joining the Patrol in 1941, Plummer served for two years on the Kansas State Border Patrol. In the early days of the Patrol, political affiliation was important to appointment, and Plummer’s father was the State Representative for Jefferson County.

He attended Wichita Police School in 1941 and was assigned as a trooper in Hays. He was promoted to Trooper Class A in June of 1942.

Plummer died on December 16, 1944, from injuries sustained in an automobile crash on U.S. Highway 40, five miles west of Russell. He was the first member of the Patrol to give his life in the line of duty.

He was survived by his wife and two children.