What is the connection between the legend of "Walking Tall" and Dickenson County?

It's amazing when two history bloodhounds get back on the trail and find information on a Dickenson County native and their marriage to a legend.

Several years ago, I decided to look at the legend of “Walking Tall” and Sheriff Buford Pusser to see what I could find out in regard to an Appalachian connection for our “Stories of Appalachia” podcast.

At first, all I found was information on Buford Pusser with the many stories of taking on the “syndicate” in McNairy County, TN and his meteoric rise to fame in bringing law and order to that part of western Tennessee. Then came the discovery of a former Dickenson County native connected to the legend of “Walking Tall”.

At first, I thought it was just some strange coincidence of finding Pauline Mullins Pusser connected to the legend. I couldn’t find a whole lot of information on her family tree except for her father Jackson Mullins and her mother, Bertha Hill Mullins.

The trail got cold at that point.

But this past Thursday night and after a weekly recording session with Steve Gilly, two history buffs and bloodhounds were put back on the trail of Pauline Mullins Pusser.

Here’s what we found out.

Pauline Mullins Pusser was a Dickenson County, VA native, born February 27, 1934 to parents Jackson Mullins and wife Bertha. According to information found online and submitted by Terry Ball of Haysi, Pauline was raised on Route 710 on Big Ridge. She attended and graduated from Haysi High School.

One of Pauline’s first jobs was working at the Hilltop Restaurant and Motel and other Haysi establishments. She also married a Roman Ironton Vance from Pike County, KY. Two children later and a subsequent divorce from Vance, Pauline found herself moving to Chicago with her two children looking for a new life and opportunity.

It was in Chicago that Pauline met Buford Pusser, who hailed from Adamsville, Tennessee in McNairy County, Pusser was born in the community of Finger on December 12, 1937.

Pusser was a high-school football and basketball player and stood 6 feet 6. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps after graduating from high school but his service time ended in boot camp, when he was given a medical discharge for asthma. By 1957, he had moved to Chicago and was known as a “local professional wrestler” also better known as "Buford the Bull" or “The Bull”.

Pauline and Buford were married on December 5, 1959 and in 1961 were blessed with a baby daughter (Dwana). In 1962, Buford and Pauline packed up and headed south for Buford’s home county of McNairy.

It was there that Buford became Chief of Police in the town of Adamsville, a position his father once held. By 1964, Buford ran for and was elected sheriff of McNairy County.

It’s no secret that the sheriff made enemies within the criminal element by declaring war on moonshining, bootlegging, prostitution, gambling, and other vices committed by the “State Line Mob” and “The Dixie Mafia” among others.

While Pusser survived several assassination attempts, he was gaining notoriety as a local hero, mainly through Pusser's "war" on the State Line Mob. His fight was brought to national prominence when he was ambushed by individuals enroute on a police call. Pauline was riding in the car with her husband on that early morning call and was killed on August 12, 1967.

Buford survived yet another assassination attempt but Pauline was not so lucky.

Pusser vowed he would apprehend those responsible for the attack and the death of his wife Pauline, but he never did catch those involved as seven years later and after his term as Sheriff of McNairy County had ended Buford Pusser would later be killed on August 21, 1974 in a fiery car crash near his home while under contract with Bing Crosby Productions to portray himself in an upcoming movie. His funeral was attended by actor Joe Don Baker and singer Elvis Presley, among others.

Now that we know a little more about the legend of Buford Pusser, let’s go back and focus on Pauline.

The Dickenson County native died when she was 33 and buried in McNairy County. So ends the story, right?

No.

As we mentioned earlier, Pusser vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice but was unable to do so.

Which brings us to January 5, 2024, when the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation publicized that the investigation of her murder remained an active case, and requested tips from the public.

Following several tips, the TBI confirmed an autopsy had not been performed on Pauline Pusser's remains during the course of the original investigation in 1967. "With the support of Pauline’s family and in consultation with 25th Judicial District Attorney General Mark Davidson, TBI requested the exhumation in an attempt to answer critical questions and provide crucial information that may assist in identifying the person or persons responsible for Pauline Pusser’s death," according to the press release issued by the TBI.

The TBI had her remains exhumed on February 8, 2024 and later reinterred in April 2024. As of this writing, there’s no information as to the autopsy results on Pauline as there is a large amount of information and evidence that is still presently under review.

So besides being born in Dickenson County, where’s the Mullins connection?

After going back and checking the Jackson Mullins line, we discovered that Pauline was indeed a distant relative of mine and also of my wife, tied together with the legendary, “Revolutionary” John Mullins (John Wesley Mullins) and with ties to Katarina (Catherine) Verner (Varner).

I had suspected a connection but honestly didn’t expect to find it so quickly.

But thanks to some research, I found out that the “Walking Tall” legend of Pusser was embellished a great deal. He didn’t have a big hickory stick that he toted around when fighting crime. That was the stuff of Hollywood legend. There’s pictures of him holding a stick but no reports of a hickory tree being used.

What is sad about Pauline’s story is how she died. In Tennessee history, she is known as the wife of Buford Pusser, who was killed in a 1967 ambush.

Thanks to Terry Ball and Family Search, I know a lot more about Pauline.

She will always be connected as a part of that famous Mullins’ bunch, the same bunch who called Dickenson County and in particular, Holly Creek, home. But for the rest of us, she’ll be known a lot more as a Dickenson County native who got lost in the historic shuffle of paperwork and genealogy and tragically lost her life on a Tennessee back road married to a law enforcement legend.

Even in retrospect, her death and the questionable actions after her death (lack of an autopsy), she’s a legend herself.

A Dickenson County legend.