Grayson County has had thirty-six Sheriffs in its history, some serving a few months, to Woody Blanton, who served the longest, 24 years 6 months and Jack Driscoll, who served 20 years.

J. Keith Gary is the present Sheriff, having first been elected in November 1996 and now serving his Fourth term. He is the first Republican to hold this office.  Sheriff Gary retired from Federal law enforcement where he served the second-longest tenure as the U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Texas.

Sheriff Gary is from a law enforcement family who graduated from Harlandale High School in San Antonio, Texas.  He earned his B.S. Degree from Lamar University, a B.A. from Excelsior College and an M.A Degree from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. He also graduated from the University of North Texas Police Academy and The National Sheriff’s Institute at Longmont, Colorado. Sheriff Gary is a member of several professional and civic organizations. 

When Sheriff Gary took office he set out to have all Grayson County Sheriff’s pictures on the wall of the lobby of this office.  All but 15 were located. The following names are of the Sheriffs for whom attempts to locate photographs were unsuccessful.

James M. Randolph 1846-1848, W.G. Reynolds 1850-1854, J.W. Evans 1859-1860. E.J.C. Thompson 1860-1862, G.W. Hobson 1863-1864, LW. Jim Vaden 1866-1867, R.M. Smith 1867-1868. Jacob Gumm 1868-1870, J.W. Hunter 1870-1872, J.H. Tuttle 1872-1876, E.G. Ebb Douglas 1882-1886, A.E. Hughes 1892-1900, A.D. Lon Shrewbury 1900-1904, T.W. Roberts 1917-1918, W.B. Boyd Craig 1918-1921.

If you have any of these pictures or may know where one may be located, please contact the Sheriff’s Office at 903-813-4408 ext. #2229.

In January 1997, the Sheriff’s Office was reorganized into three separate and distinct divisions, Administration, Enforcement and Corrections (jail).  The command structure includes the Sheriff, Chief Deputy, Assistant Chief Deputy who heads the Enforcement and Administration Divisions, and a Captain who heads Jail Operations.

Major accomplishments since January 1997 include the building of 193 new beds for inmates. This was accomplished by using inmate labor, building supervision by a county employee and a mixture of county funds augmented by revenue from housing Federal prisoners, and a guaranteed contract with the Immigration and Naturalization Service which paid for 96 beds now used for local prisoners. The County did not have to float a bond issue or raise taxes to pay for the 193 beds which were a 72% increase in prisoner bed space. This has positioned the County to house an increase in local prisoners for the immediate future. 

Another accomplishment has been the use of “trusty” inmates to perform maintenance and landscaping on county property and an agreement initiated by Sheriff Gary and the Commissioners to train county employees to supervise low-risk “Trusties”. The black and white stripe-clad inmates are a familiar sight on the public roadways picking up trash and trimming trees.  This results in a substantial savings to the taxpayers.