Tyrone Police

Chief Roger Spencer was remembered at his funeral Wednesday as a compassionate

policeman who cared about Tyrone and was prone to pull pranks on co-workers,

friends and family.

Spencer, who

died unexpectedly Monday, was laid to rest after a lengthy police motorcade,

a 21-gun salute and an aerial tribute from police helicopters flying in

the "missing man" formation. Representatives from each of Fayette

County's public safety agencies were in attendance as well as others from

area agencies.

Speakers at

the funeral often referred to Spencer's jovial pranks, which sometimes

involved disguising his voice on the phone. Once, Spencer tricked his

brother Scott into believing he was an IRS agent who wanted Scott to come

to the agency's office for an audit.

"It took

a lot to get back at him, but when you did, you really got him good,"

Scott Spencer said.

Scott Spencer

challenged everyone in attendance to do something special to remember

his brother.

"I'd like

for all of you to go out and do something ornery, have a good laugh about

it and then look up to the sky and say, 'Hey Roger, that was for you,'"

Spencer said.

Chief Spencer

was also known for routinely "dressing up" his officers for

Tyrone's annual Founders Day festivities. Sometimes, the officers would

turn up in women's dresses, complete with makeup and the whole nine yards.

One year, he got them dressed up as the 1970s music group The Village

People.

City employees

got even for his routine pranks one year by painting his office pink,

recalled Tyrone Mayor Sheryl Lee. She noted that under Spencer's leadership,

the police department became one of the smallest in Georgia to earn state

accreditation.

Spencer's son

Toby said his father dearly loved his job and the town of Tyrone. After

Spencer left the hospital this weekend, "the first thing he did was

go to Tyrone and pick his patrol car up," Toby Spencer said.

Spencer also

set a good example for others, noted the Rev. Bill McElwaney, who recalled

a story from when he was 14 years old, watching a bully chasing down a

smaller child who was running home.

The smaller

child's father met the youth at the door and said, "If you don't

fight him, you're gonna have to fight me," McElwaney said.

Spencer, who

was off duty at the time, heard the commotion and had a brief talk with

the young boy's father, who later went back inside, McElwaney said. But

it was what Spencer did next that meant a lot to McElwaney.

"He put

his arm around the kid and for the first time, the kid relaxed,"

McElwaney said. "He ministered to the kid who was hurt. ... I was

impressed by that. What he did that day, he did because he was Roger and

that was his character."

During the

funeral, deputies from the Fayette County Sheriff's Department covered

Tyrone so Spencer's offices could attend the services.

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