Patrick Allen Poe; Retired LAPD Detective

Patrick Allen Poe, a 31-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, has died in Augusta, Ga. He was 77.

Poe began his career with the police department in 1942, working a foot beat in MacArthur Park before becoming a homicide detective in the San Fernando Valley’s Foothill Division.

He died June 6 of cancer, said his daughter, Ginny Dangle.

Born March 1, 1913, in Benton, Ill., Poe moved to Hollywood with his parents when he was a child. He graduated from San Fernando High School in 1932, but stayed an extra year so that he could continue as captain of the football team. He attended the University of Southern Illinois, later working at Lockheed Corp. in Burbank and on fishing boats in the Pacific.

He served in the Army for four years during World War II, reaching the rank of first lieutenant, before returning to police work.

In the late 1960s, he moved to the Foothill Division in Pacoima, where he served as a homicide detective until his retirement in 1973. He moved to Georgia in 1978.

Poe had belonged to American Legion Post No. 520 in Sun Valley, the San Fernando Elks Lodge No. 1539 and the Footprinters Assn.

He is survived by his wife of 45 years, Edith Y. Poe; daughters Patricia Greco of Palm Desert, Ginny Dangle of Valencia, Judy Crowell of Stockbridge, Ga., and Musa Anderson of Thomson, Ga.; 10 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. He was a distant cousin of author Edgar Allan Poe.

A memorial service will be held at 9 a.m. Saturday at the San Fernando Mission, 15151 San Fernando Mission Blvd., Mission Hills. Burial will be in Thomson, Ga.