Ed Clemons Burke

Annotation

Growing up in a small town in Tennessee,Joe Burke, a frail child, is bullied andbeaten by an older boy, Carl Overland. Joes drunken father, a deputy sheriff,ridicules him for letting it happen. As a teenager, he falls in love with a senators daughter. They plan for Joe to enlist in the Air Force while she attends college. Their plans end abruptly. Thirty years later, colonel Burke returns to his home town for his mothers funeral. He learns Carl Overlands criminalactivities are terrorizing the town. Due to Burkes thirty years of law enforcement in the Air Force,he is asked to retire and run for sheriff. Learning that the girl he has continued to love and dream about is a widow, he decides to retire and run. His second chance for happinessis jeopardized when he learns thesenator may be linked to Carl Overland.