Man finishes decades-long project, a history book about Texas sheriffs, at his wife’s last wish

Ronnie Erwin wrote Stars Over Texas with his wife Lynn.

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Ronnie Erwin flipped through the pages of “Stars Over Texas” in Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez’s office.

The book – which provides a detailed history of every sheriff’s office in Texas – looks like it belongs in a museum. But it wasn’t written by historians. It was written by Ronnie and Lynn Erwin, a couple who simply decided to take on the project.

“This was a commitment we made over 25 years ago,” Ronnie said. “We went to libraries, archives, museums, sheriff’s offices and tried to find out something about the person who wore that badge.”

They had always planned to travel around the state after completing the book and deliver a copy to every serving sheriff.

But when we met Ronnie, he was traveling to Travis County alone.

“God had a different plan. He diagnosed Lynn with a very rare disease that gave her only three or five months to live,” he said. She died before they could finish, and in her final moments wished that Ronnie would too.

“I’ll try, darling. I don’t know if I can or not,” Ronnie told her. “Not long after she died, I woke up at two or three in the morning, crying like a four-year-old. All I could hear was her voice telling us to finish our book.”

He did. And every time he showed the book to a sheriff, he also told him Lynn’s story.

“It was Ronnie’s love for Lynn that got him through it all,” said Hernandez. Today she calls Ronnie a “great friend.”

Each volume contains a different photo of Lynn on a dedication page at the beginning of the book.

“Sometimes you don’t see a picture when you turn the page, but I assure you, it’s between the lines,” Ronnie said.

But Lynn’s honor doesn’t end with the book. The Sheriffs’ Association of Texas has now established the Lynn M. Erwin Memorial Award. The first award ceremony will take place at the end of July.