Local women make history with police force

Published in the Kerrville Daily Times on September 20, 2025

Today I am going to tell you the story of two women who broke gender and race barriers in Kerrville’s law enforcement community. While these ladies were completely different in attitude and life experience, they did have one thing in common: In spite of having initial doubts that a woman would be successful as a police officer, their spirit and approach in the way they treated the citizens of Kerrville made them excel in their law enforcement positions.

These two women were Rosie McCray and Annie Mosty.

Rosie McCray

Rosie Kelly McCray was born in Kerrville in 1929 and graduated from Doyle High School — Kerrville’s school for black youth during segregation — in 1946 as valedictorian. She earned a bachelor’s degree in music with a minor in education from Houston-Tillotson College in Austin in 1950. 

McCray earned her place in Kerrville history, not only for being Kerrville’s first black patrol officer, but also earned the distinction of being Kerrville’s first and only female police chief.

Obviously, with a degree in music, McCray’s professional aspirations didn’t start with law enforcement. After graduating from college, McCray taught school in Cameron. Sometime in the 1950s, she married her first husband, Lawrence Norris — a fellow Doyle alum — and moved with him to Kansas City, where she worked for the U.S. Post Office for 19 years.

When the couple divorced in 1972, McCray returned to her hometown with seven of her eight children. She believed the small town environment of Kerrville would be better for her children than big city life.

She applied for the position of dispatcher with the Kerrville Police Department for “no other reason than it was a job, and I needed the work.” Through her work as a dispatcher, McCray began to take an interest in police work. Within five months of becoming a dispatcher, she had completed certification at the police academy and was hired as a patrol officer in October of 1973, earning her a distinction of being the first black officer on the Kerrville police force.

On a traffic stop early in her career, she stopped a woman for a traffic violation. The woman asked her, “What are you doing out here playing like you’re a cop? You ought to be home raising your kids.”

McCray assured the motorist that she really was a police officer and also a “mother raising children with strong values and morals.” McCray discovered the woman didn’t have a driver’s license, so she took the woman home. McCray said she and that woman became really good friends after that traffic stop.

In June 1977, McCray was promoted to sergeant. At the time of her promotion, Kerrville Police Chief Scotty Evans said that McCray was chosen for the position over five other officers who had submitted a written examination and were subjected to a number of interviews. McCray scored the highest points in all areas.

In May 1982, she was promoted to lieutenant and held that position until retirement in 1995. In 1983, she was named Peace Officer of the Year by the Kerrville Chamber of Commerce.

In an interview conducted toward the end of her career, McCray said she didn’t remember it being difficult to break race or gender barriers during her years in law enforcement.

“I had expected it would be, but it was really not difficult at all,” she said. “After a couple of months on the streets, I felt that I had earned the respect of my fellow officers and of the community.”

She added that the biggest factor in gaining was respect was that she treated everyone as an equal.

“The way you treat the public and show you have respect for them is very important,” she said. “That even goes for the people you are arresting.”

In 1980, Rosie married C.W. McCray, an employee of the Kerrville Telephone Company, and continued to work for the Kerrville police. In 1989, Rosie was named interim police chief when Evans retired from the force. She served as police chief for six months while the City of Kerrville sought a replacement for Evans.

After a new Chief was hired, McCray served as administrative lieutenant until her retirement in 1995.

McCray did not sit still during her retirement. She and C.W. traveled, she wrote a history of the Doyle School and served as organist and treasurer for Barnett Chapel United Methodist Church. She even appeared in a production of “The Miracle Worker” on the Point Theatre stage. She died in 2002 and is buried beside her husband in the Garden of Memories Cemetery.

A lot of people believe that McCray was also the first female officer in Kerrville, but that’s technically not true. That distinction actually belongs to Annie Mosty.

Annie Mosty

Annie Peschel Mosty was born in Kerrville in 1934. She graduated from Tivy High School in 1952 and married John Mosty the summer after graduation. The Mostys had two daughters, and Annie was a stay-at-home mom until one afternoon in 1958, when she heard a public service announcement on the radio requesting applicants for patrol women to serve in school zones while school was in session.

Mosty said she wasn’t interested in the position at first, but she began to think about it and thought being a patrol woman would be an interesting job.

“I talked to my husband about it, and he left the decision up to me,” she said. “I decided to apply. My first thought after making the decision was that I had better get up and roll my hair if I intended to apply the next morning.”

Her hair must have been fantastic that morning — out of 10 applicants for the job, the 5-foot-3 brunette was the candidate the city selected.

In September 1958, she became the first female police officer for the City of Kerrville. Her tasks were mostly to issue parking tickets, serve as a crossing guard and direct traffic at the intersection of Tivy and Barnett streets. During the school year, her job was to patrol near the school. During the summer, her beat would be downtown Kerrville. 

She was known for her cheerful demeanor, even when issuing parking tickets.

”Some people think I enjoy giving tickets because I walk away smiling, but I think they would rather have me give them the ticket than to have a man do it,” she said.

When she started as a patrol woman, she said she was worried that people might try to get away with more because she was a woman, but she found most citizens to be courteous.

“I have had only one real problem arise: A man I gave a ticket told me to ‘run along’ because he didn’t think a woman was qualified for the job,” she said. “I just explained to him I was well qualified for the job, as was a man.”

Before downtown became Mosty’s beat, an officer on a motorcycle had the job issuing tickets for parking violations.

“People listened for the motorcycle before,” she said, “Now they listen for my footsteps. When I hear a cash register jingle, I race to get the ticket on the car before they can put money in the parking meter.”

Of her job, Mosty said she thought women could handle some phases of police work as well as men, but she thought a policewoman has limitations in the kind of work she could do. While no formal training was required for the position she held, she said that she wouldn’t pursue further training if the opportunity arose. She enjoyed her work with the police but did not intend to make it her career and felt her daughters, who were 5 and 6 when she took the job, were her priority.

Mosty resigned from her position with the Kerrville Police in 1963. Later, she worked for the Kerrville Chamber of Commerce and Ingram Water Supply. She was an award-winning bowler and was proud that she hit a bullseye the first time she shot a gun and also was able to water ski on the first try.

She died in 2014 and is buried in the Brown Cemetery.