Standing in for her dad

Hallettsville Mayor Alice Summers, Councilwoman Chastity Grant Carter and her husband, Vincent Carter, made their way to Magnolia Sunday afternoon, where the Harris County Sheriff’s Junior Mounted Posse was honoring her father, former Hallettsville Police Chief Elmo Grant, for his longtime support of the posse on its rides into Hallettsville year after year.

Not terribly surprising, really. Grant is, after all, an accomplished rodeo cowboy in his own right, a seven-time championship buckle winner with the Texas Police Officers Rodeo Association as a calf roper and steer wrestler.

The Houston posse members presented him with a fine straw brim signed by each of its members, many of whom Grant mentored in his younger years.

Carter accepted their gift on behalf of her dad last weekend, who unfortunately could not attend because, as she recently shared, Chief Grant spent the last several weeks battling bacterial meningitis.

The very same day (June 28) Hallettsville city leaders honored him for the half century of service he’d given to the community—both as its top lawman and, later, as a city councilman for about two decades—Carter says she noticed her dad wasn’t quite his usual self when he got back home that evening.

So, after several tests to find out what might be wrong, doctors discovered the meningitis, and that his infection had traveled into his brain by then.

It was a definite scare for all involved, especially those closest to him, Carter said.

But as he’s done several times before now with other ailments, Grant is on the mend once again and, hopefully, will get to return home to Hallettsville soon.

Be watching for a more in-depth story on Chief Grant in the forthcoming Hallettsville Chamber magazine.