Around Broadneck: Arnold resident one of our nation's top cops

It's hard to believe the dapper, elegantly dressed gentleman owned one pair of shoes and two pairs of pants as a child. But Arnold resident Louie McKinney was the son of a poor, widowed sharecropper who struggled to manage his farm while rearing nine children in Walhalla, S.C.

More amazing is the fact that McKinney, now 72, is one of America's top cops and the former acting director of the United States Marshals Service. He currently works as senior vice president of governmental Affairs for MBM Inc., a security company. He also is employed part-time as a special investigator for the FBI.

The late J. Edgar Hoover wouldn't hire McKinney as an agent when he was younger, solely because McKinney is an African American.

He served as a U.S. Marshal from 1968 to 1994. In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed him acting director of the U. S. Marshals Service, the first career deputy to lead the Marshals Service. It was one of three times he returned from retirement at the request of a president.

"One Marshal's Badge" (Potomac Books), which McKinney co-wrote with Pat Russo, is McKinney's account of his inspiring life story and the many times his job intersected with moments in history. John Walsh, host of "America's Most Wanted," and a longtime friend, wrote the forward.

The Marshals Service, he says in his book, "is not as well-known or as large as the FBI or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Yet it has broader arrest powers than any law-enforcement agency and makes more arrests than all other federal agencies combined. In 2006 alone, the marshals captured 38,000 fugitives. By working in task forces with state and local agencies, we locked up another 46,800."

According to McKinney, when people hear of the U.S. Marshals, they think of the old gunslingers of pulp fiction paperbacks or Matt Dillon from TV's "Gunsmoke" series.

While the U.S. Marshals were a part of the wild, wild west, a more modern U.S. Marshal, NASA astronaut Jim Reilly, was deputized and has flown into space twice wearing a special U.S. Marshals' badge McKinney gave him during a pre-flight ceremony.

As a youngster, McKinney escaped the poverty of his surroundings by running away to Asbury Park, N.J., where relatives lived. A cousin took him to the local high school to enroll him in classes.

"I can't go here," McKinney remembers saying. "There are white people in this school."

He'd never heard of integrated schools.

"They sat me in a class next to a white girl," he chuckled. "I was terrified. She thought I was crazy, but invited me to go to the beach. I was sick!"

He eventually enlisted in the Navy in 1953 as a steward. He was trained to wait on white officers. During his Navy years, he was stationed at the Naval Academy and met Roger Staubach, the Navy's star quarterback. He fell in love with the area where he was a frequent visitor to Carr's Beach.

"I saw James Brown perform there, the Coasters, Billy Eckstine, the Shirelles, Ruth Brown and the Drifters," he said.

After McKinney left the Navy, he became one of the first African-American police officers in Washington, D.C. Back then, African-American policemen weren't allowed to ride in squad cars. McKinney's street beat was midnight to 8 a.m. in a rough part of town.

He joined the U.S. Marshals in '68 and has had a career that included guarding John Hinckley, the disturbed young man who attempted to assassinate President Reagan.

In his book, McKinney describes secretly moving Hinckley from one secure location to another - only to have photographs appear the next day on the front pages of newspapers.

Earlier, he was assigned to Wounded Knee, S.D., and endured weeks of being shot at by angry Native Americans. He also was involved in enforcing the integration of Southern public schools, protecting Jimmy Hoffa's family and guarding the late Sen. Ted Kennedy and his family.

Louie has been married for 28 years to Judy, whom he met in the U.S. Marshals Service. They have two grown children, Louie Thomas McKinney Jr., 27, a U.S. Marshal; and Magen McKinney, 23, with the FBI.

"There are a lot of stumbling blocks out there," Louie said. "If you want to make it, you'll make it.''

Oui! Oui! C'est National French Week through tomorrow. The World Languages Club at Severn River Middle School met after school Thursday to make crepes. Bon appetit!

Posters lettered with French phrases have been decorating school hallways since midweek. According to French teacher Ying Smith, "Some of my students from first period are on the morning announce-ments teaching French words to the school." She noted the eighth-grade class is gearing up to write "en francais" to pen pals, who are students the same age, in France. By January, she hopes the seventh-graders will have pen pals, too. Bonne chance!

Wendi Winters is a freelance writer who lives on the Broadneck Peninsula. If you have news or story ideas, send an e-mail to BroadneckNews@quantumstep.com.