Hero #28: Officer Osborn A. Lyon, Oakland Police Department
In the early Sunday morning hours of August 19, 1931, motorcycle Patrolman Osborne A. Lyon was
patrolling the streets of East Oakland. While on Foothill Boulevard he observed a vehicle driving at a high rate of speed and gave chase. When Patrolman Lyon reached the intersection of 60th Avenue and Foothill, he sideswiped a truck and was thrown to the street. He suffered a fractured skull and other injuries.
He was transported to Highland Hospital for emergency treatment. Despite the efforts of medical personnel and blood transfusions, Lyon lost his fight for life at 7 A.M. Osborne A. Lyon, age 29, joined the Department on August 1, 1929. He had just been transferred to the Traffic Bureau. He was survived by his wife and child.
While doing the research on these heroes the goal was to determine if their final resting place had a marker. Osborne Lyon was the last of the of the 52 Oakland Police Department heroes we researched. We were aware he is at Mountain View cemetery in Oakland but we were unable to determine his exact location, even with a provided plot map. It appeared we were going to have one more unmarked grave, as the area of the plot we believed him to be in was all grass.
Mountain View's General Manager Jeff Lindeman assigned Building and Grounds Supervisor Craig A. Nuchols to the search. Using other grave markers as points of reference, Craig measured by pacing until he arrived at what he believed to be the exact spot. After a few pokes into the ground with his shovel, he struck something solid. He dug several inches into the recently rained-upon soil and there it was - the grave marker for Osborne A. Lyon, who had essentially been buried twice; once as a result of his tragic incident and once by the passage of time. See the photos below.
