The Beryl R. Newman Memorial Bridge over Urbanna Creek was closed Saturday for 15 minutes as participants on the annual Police Unity Tour stopped on the bridge to honor two local fallen police officers.
The group comes to Urbanna annually to honor the late Middlesex County Deputy Robert Talmadge Hicks and Gloucester County’s late Executive Lieutenant Terry L. Singleton.
Dep. Hicks drowned after his police cruiser ran off the Urbanna bridge on May 20, 1984 while responding to a driver in distress call on an early Sunday morning. Singleton collapsed and died from cardiac arrest while participating in a physical training exercise for the county’s Special Operations Unit in 1993.
The 250-mile bicycle ride, along with an entourage of motorcycles and other vehicles starts in Portsmouth, and is designed to raise awareness about police officers who have died in the line of duty and to raise money for the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in the nation’s capital.
On the bridge, the group stopped by a wreath mounted to the side of the bridge close to where Hicks went off the bridge in 1984. Trustee of Unity Tour Chapter 8 Hugh Miller spoke on the bridge and praised Hicks and Singleton for their sacrifice and acknowledged other fallen police lost while on duty. The group lowered their heads for a moment of silent prayer.
The Middlesex County Volunteer Fire Department (MCVFD) Women’s Auxiliary provided snacks, homemade brownies, water and soft drinks for the bicyclists, who take about a 30 minute rest stop annually in Urbanna. The tour then cycled on to Tappahannock, where they spent Saturday night, then on to Fredericksburg and ended the trip on Monday, May 12, at the fallen police monument in Washington, D.C.
At the Urbanna firehouse, Miller presented auxiliary members with a plaque in appreciation for the approximately 20 years that the auxiliary has been supporting the Police Unity Tour.
Longtime auxiliary member Jeannine Rowe said the group was honored and thanked Miller for acknowledging the “long and faithful” efforts of the women’s auxiliary who make the Urbanna stopover so special.
“This is something we as an auxiliary do every year and we look forward to it,” said Rowe, who is recovering from an operation but was there in spite of health issues. Rowe is a former Urbanna Town Council member and has given a lifetime of volunteerism to the community.
