HINTON ENDS 29 YEARS WITH PATROL

Missouri Highway Patrol Superintendent Fred Mills has been seeing a lot of retirements lately. This month alone the department has had 70 officers retire, with collective service of 1,300 years.

Col. Mills was in Cape Girardeau Friday night for a dinner honoring Sgt. Benny Hinton, who holds 29 of those years of service. As Mills made note of the large number of retiring officers, he was quick to point out that the department was not going to miss the quantity as much as the quality.

All the retirements are coincidental.

"We are losing a lot of quality in the patrol, and Benny Hinton exemplifies the quality of people we have," said Mills. He praised Hinton for his dedication and loyalty to the highway patrol.

Mills presented Hinton with a retirement citation and other tokens of appreciation from the patrol.

A native of Cape Girardeau, Hinton served three years with the Marines before joining the Cape Police Department in September of 1961. Four years later, he was accepted by the highway patrol and began his career at Ironton.

In October of 1970 Hinton moved to Jackson after being assigned to Cape Girardeau County and remained there until his retirement Sept. 1. In March of 1980, he was promoted to corporal, and three years later became a sergeant.

Hinton, who was joined by his wife Nelda and many other family members, said he was honored to have been part of the patrol. "We feel especially blessed to have been part of the best law enforcement agency in the country," said Hinton.

He pointed out that for 29 years, he had planned his life around the schedule of the highway patrol. He now looks forward to making his own schedule.

In retirement, Hinton joke that one of his fears is whether he can learn to match clothes every day since there is no uniform to wear.

"My wife Nelda gets up in the morning to go to work and asks `what am I going to wear to work today?'" observed Hinton. "I've never had that problem. I've been very proud of wearing that blue uniform all these years."

Several of the guests recalled how Hinton had been praised frequently over the years, even by people he ticketed, for being polite and understanding.

Among the presentations was one from Sgt. Leo McElrath, commander of Zone 5, who presented a plaque of appreciation on behalf of his co-workers.

Cape County Sheriff Leonard Hines presented a plaque from his department, which made note of Hinton's cooperation with the department and other law enforcement agencies, and his 33 years of service to the people.

The highway patrol has a zone office located in the county sheriff's department.