Howell County News/Nate HudsonHowell County News/ Amanda Mendez

Coroner candidates compared

After sixteen years of continuity in the office of the Howell County Coroner, the race is contested both in the primary among Republicans and in the general election. 
 
Incumbent James T. “Tim” Cherry will face challenger Dr. Gary Max DeShazo in August, and this winner will run against Democrat Jeffrey Collins in November. 
 
Cherry told Howell County News his family has been in West Plains for five generations. He is a member of the West Plains High School Class of 1971. 2024 is his sixteenth year as Howell County Coroner. Throughout his professional life, Cherry has worked for West Plains Glass Company, oil fields out of the area, the International Show Company, Bruce Hardwood Flooring, and Robertson Drago Funeral Home. 
 
He describes the job as being responsible for any unattended death, determining those causes of death, causing autopsies to be performed on all child deaths, and maintain the records of the coroner’s office, which Cherry says date back to the 1880’s.
 
Sixteen years into the job, Cherry reports he has a positive working relationship with area law enforcement officers, emergency medical services, and volunteer firefighters. 
 
“Experience mainly,” is what Cherry says makes him the best man for the job. “I think I have an empathy and a sympathy for people who have suffered loss… God has been good and let me keep my health and my mind…I enjoy helping people. Helping them get through the loss is the one satisfying part of the job. I believe that anyone I’ve ever had to work with understands that I do sincerely feel their loss.”
 
Cherry retired from Robertson Drago two years ago. 
 
Challenger Dr. Gary DeShazo, M.O. is also from West Plains. He is a member of the West Plains High School Class of 1970. After high school and a short stint in the U.S. Navy, Dr. DeShazo obtained a medical degree and served some time in the U.S. Army as a Captain and physician.
 
He spent 38 years in private practice as a family physician in Las Vegas. He says he has been back in Howell County for nearly two years. 
 
Because of his medical background, DeShazo says he is adapted to reading medical records. He has personally performed hundreds of autopsies. 
 
According to the challenger, he is the right man for the job because he is, “community minded.”
 
“I would like to bring the issue of drug use and drug death up to the community, talk about it in schools. I want community awareness,” he told Howell County News. “I’m good at obtaining medical records from hospitals and other doctors to make sure death certificates are accurate…I think I would be the only physician coroner in the state.”
 
Dr. DeShazo describes himself as “pretty well qualified” for the office of corner. He says his health is good, that he is used to the 24/7 on-call schedule, and that his life as a physician has prepared him for the toughest parts of the job. 
 
He also pointed out that he is, “not associated with any mortuary businesses.”
 
Howell County News asked Cherry if his thirty-year association with a West Plains funeral home should give the voters pause. 
 
“Absolutely not,” Cherry said. “It would be highly unethical, and it would only take one complaint for an investigation. We do not suggest funeral homes or anything like that We leave it strictly up to the family.”
 
The Howell County Coroner appoints a deputy. Currently, the Deputy Coroner is Michael Pauly. There are no other employees. The county provides an office space and records storage, but there are no clerks. Most of the expenses are for autopsy services, at approximately three thousand dollars each.
 
The coroner’s salary in 2024 is $26,528.62, and the overall department budget is $97,497.62, confirms Howell County Clerk Kelly Waggoner.
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