Summer D. Langford

is honored with a Large Paver from Wichita Law Enforcement.

We have never known anyone like Summer Langford. We liked and loved her. We know you would have too. She was born on June 17, 1972 in Wichita. For those who knew her, there are many memories and many more that will never be fulfilled. Summer was a person of simple grace who described herself as liberal and conservative. She had a wonderful smile and a lighthearted laugh and used them both a great deal. Her blue eyes sparkled and her humor embraced everyone. She loved God, was self-confident, had a good heart and a good mind, and cared deeply about animals and the environment. She was loyal and hardworking. We admired her honesty.

Summer grew up in the Wichita area. She once said, "Other people want to leave Kansas, but I like it here." She had a fondness for those things sometimes overlooked by others - a walk in the yard, standing on the deck gazing up at the stars, talking to animals - and she could always be counted on to play in the snow.

The first eight years of her life were lived on Regents Lane near the University. She went to Carter Elementary through the second grade and played in the "ghost house" with her sister Adrienne and their friends on the block. One day she "married" the little boy across the street. Those were the years of her first Christmases, Halloween pumpkins, riding her bike, and swimming in a plastic pool in the backyard. In 1980, her youngest sister Cassie was born and all five of us, along with our Saint Bernard, moved into a barn-style timber house that we had built on ten acres out in the country known simply as "the land."

During the next ten years, Summer learned what living in a rural part of Kansas meant - quiet peacefulness, raw wind, fun on your own, swimming in the backyard pool, riding our horse Rocky, taking long walks on a country road, sledding down our little hill, looking at stars that can't be seen in the city, and watching bunnies running around in the early morning.

Summer started going to Benton Grade School. In the summertime she played softball and in the fall she played soccer. Her favorite soccer team was probably the Roughnecks - a group of boys and girls thrown together at the last minute and coached by her Uncle Ed and her dad. She was a Brownie and a Girl Scout. In the eighth grade she surprised all of us when she joined the basketball team and then lettered. She had a great jumpshot. During those years she also made lifelong friends who would go on with her through the rest of her young life.

In 1986, Summer graduated from Benton Grade School and became a freshman at Circle High School in Towanda. She was a good student while also lettering in forensics and softball. She helped with make-up at the school plays. It was also at this time that she inherited a love of reading from her mother, Collette. Her range of reading interests was wide: novels, history, especially World War II and the Holocaust, magazines, newspapers, but her favorite author was Stephen King and she collected everything that he wrote. She graduated from Circle in 1990.

If you went to Wichita State, then Summer was one of you. It was at WSU that she met David. While in school, she worked at Jim Morgan's Dry Cleaners on Oliver and as a dispatcher for the WSU Police Department. Majoring in Administration of Justice with a minor in History, she graduated in 1995 with a 3.228 GPA.

In 1996 she was accepted into the Wichita Police Academy. After graduating fourth in her class Summer was assigned to Patrol West in West Wichita as a 911 beat officer. David, a police officer, was also assigned there. Citizens who met her said she cared about children and was gentle with the homeless. Her fellow officers said, "She was one of us." They also said she was thorough and good at her job. She took time to counsel children and teenagers using experiences from her own life.

Summer was kind and honest, tough and funny. Her humor could be biting and she didn't let others make decisions for her. She went all of her life to St. Mary's Cathedral and served mass with her dad. She was close to her sisters Adrienne and Cassie. She liked Harley-Davidson motorcycles, the Beatles, Aerosmith, the Doors, the Eagles, Kiss, Jesus Christ Superstar, the Nutcracker Suite, the Wranglers, Jaws, The Exorcist, Blues Brothers, Tombstone and Groundhog's Day. She lived life everyday. On October 11, 1997, Summer was killed by a drunk driver while on her way home from work at Patrol West.

Summer, we will love you forever. We will never forget you . . . never.

Submitted by Don, Collette, Adrienne, and Cassie Langford - DCSAC

August 31, 1998