KSHB 41 reporter Alyssa Jackson covers portions of Johnson County, including Overland Park, Prairie Village and Leawood. If you have a story idea to share, send Alyssa an email to alyssa.jackson@kshb.com.
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This week marks exactly 40 years since Overland Park police Ofc. Deanna Sue Rose was killed in the line of duty.
Rose was attempting to arrest a man for drunk driving. The driver knocked her down beneath his car and ran over her as he drove away. She was only 26 years old.
She served with the Overland Park Police Department for two years and the San Diego County Sheriff's Office before that.
John Douglass, a retired Overland Park Chief of Police, was a watch commander for the department at the time.
He said she was fearless.
"They put together a SWAT team, went to his house, took him out of the house," Douglass said. "They were able to determine who he was by the fact that she had taken his driver's license and put it in her pocket."
Rose was the Overland Park Police Department's first line of duty death and the first woman officer killed in Kansas.
"In 1985, women officers were not unknown but they were not a regular occurrence," Douglass said. "In the community, and maybe few in the department, were skeptical if they could do the job — she could do the job."
While he describes Rose as fearless, many knew of her soft spot for animals and magnetic personality.
Also, her love for horses.
"Her animals for that moment and time were her children," Douglass said. "She had a horse she was always talking about. She certainly loved animals and that would be where you would find her — amongst them."
The farmstead closes in their off season. It re-opens for the season on April 1.
Jeremy Myers, who works for the city, said they have several hundred thousand people who come to the farmstead.
They won't leave only knowing about animals.
“With her name on the front of that children's farmstead, it brings back a lot of memories that Deanna Rose had and served her community proudly," Myers said.
If you walk around the farmstead now, it's silent.
Rose's impact remains loud.
"What would she be like today? She'd be in her middle '60s or at least early '60s…would she be a grandma? Still in the department, probably would have been retired by now?" Douglass said.
Douglass can't help but think of all Rose was capable of before her life was cut short.
"She'll always be frozen in time by that last moment," he said. "It's not the end of her story but the end of that chapter."
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