Police1 has learned that Sergeant Major Manuel Curry of the New Orleans Police — who is believed to be the longest serving full-time law enforcement officer in the United States — died at an area hospital at age 84. The cause of death was not released, but one report indicated that Curry had become ill in recent weeks.
New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley was quoted by the Associated Press as having said that says the 84-year-old officer died early Thursday morning, June 4, 2009.
Curry “battled the Nazis on the beaches of Normandy and the chaos which ravaged New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina,” one report said.
One of the reports Curry told Agence France Presse in a 2006 interview that the “worst thing that ever happened (to me) was Omaha Beach.” Curry reportedly said that Hurricane Katrina was the second-worst thing he’d ever lived through
Curry joined NOPD in 1946 and was in the city’s Sixth Police District for more than 63 years. He reportedly was an active-duty officer at the time of his death, and “will be buried as a hero,” said William Trepagnier, himself a 44-year NOPD veteran.
