There is a good feeling of security when you know your county has responsible, even Christian, law enforcement officers on duty for your protection. We have enjoyed that ever since 2000, when we moved to Decatur from the Coast, “chasing grandkids,” as I tell folks.
Sheriff Jackie Knight was born March 29, 1948, in Union, to parents William Claborne Knight and Marie Gross Knight. After graduating from Union High School in 1966, he
worked at La-Z-Boy until 1974. He sold insurance for about a year, then farmed, raising laying hens for about 10 years before going into law enforcement. He became a deputy in 1984, working 24/7, 365 days of the year.
He met Janice Huddleston from Beulah-Hubbard when he was working at La-Z-Boy, in 1968. They were married 43 years ago in 1974. Their three children are Brooke Knight Sibley, born in 1977, Neil Knight, born in 1982, and Whitney Knight Alexander, born in 1988. They also enjoy four grandchildren.
I knew Sheriff Knight was a Christian, but I was interested to know his story. tHe says that sometimes a person will ask him how he can be a Christian and be in law enforcement, to which he answers, “I don’t know how you can be in law enforcement and not be a Christian!”
He had been reared in a church-going family and had “walked the aisle” as a child. When he was 29, about 1977, he was in a revival at Pine Ridge Baptist Church, with the Rev. Phillip Gandy as the evangelist, when he sensed the Holy Spirit tell him, “Boy, if you die now, you’ll go to hell!” He went down and made peace with the Lord. He says, “I knew then, if I died, I’d go to Heaven.”
He told me of beginning as a deputy where there were only three deputies for the entire county. They were supposed to have one weekend off, every three weekends, but it usually didn’t happen. And it’s much more dangerous now, of course. One person was usually sent out to answer a call, but they have to send out two now.
He has been elected sheriff six times, beginning in 1995. I remembered hearing this story and wanted to hear it again. He almost died before being elected the first time, but he said he asked, “God, if it’s Your will, let me be sheriff.” And he says, “God left me here to be sheriff.”
He was 46, in the hospital being treated for ear infections, when he was given the chance to go home, though the doctor said he would like him to stay one more night. He chose to stay, saying, “What’s one more night?”
While there, when he sat in a chair for the nurse to change the bed, he had a heart attack. Doctors were able to do a balloon angioplasty, which saved his life. He was told that, if he had had to come in from even 10 minutes away, his heart would have exploded. He believes God kept him there so his life would be saved. Weeks later, he had to have open heart surgery to perform a double bypass, with two stents being inserted since then, one being just a few months ago.
Evidently, the Lord wanted Newton County to continue to benefit from the expertise of this man. About four years ago, he says he had “another miracle, bigger than that!” He became “deathly sick.” After many tests, hospital stays, even gall bladder surgery, he suffered from several conditions which caused the doctor at Newton Hospital to do a CT scan.
Sheriff Knight went to the Mexican restaurant to have lunch while the doctor read the scan. He received a call and was told to rush to a doctor in Jackson, because he had two pulmonary embolisms in his right lung. A deputy took him to River Oaks Hospital in Brandon, where a nurse was waiting for him outside with a wheel chair. The doctor told him, “You’re supposed to be dead! God is the only thing that has kept you alive. People don’t live through this!”
I asked about the worst situation he had ever seen, to which he answered that homicides and suicides are the worst, but even a car wreck with a child involved, being hurt badly or killed, can give him chest pains.
I asked about his most spiritual moment, to which he replied that he had had a lot of them.
“When I get down, depressed, worried, I just go sit down and talk to Him. People don’t realize the comfort you can get just sitting down and having a good, long talk with the Lord.”
He added from scripture, “It is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment,” (Hebrews 9:27), declaring, “The Bible is true. Whether we believe it or not, it’s true. Our life is like a vapor. It’s here, then it’s gone.”
Sheriff Knight knows, “A saved person doesn’t have to fear dying or judgment. To a Christian, death is a blessing. To a lost person, living is a blessing, because when they die…” As a Christian — and a law enforcement officer — he says thankfully, “I’m not perfect, but forgiven.”
You may contact me at lagnesrussell@gmail.com or 601-635-3282.
