Polishing Shoes, Healing Hearts: Courthouse Shoe Shiner Cleo Fields Dies at 87
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — It's a sad day for anyone who has ever stepped inside the Oklahoma County Courthouse. The friendly shoe shiner, Cleophas Fields, has passed away.
Friday morning, people have been coming by his stand, heartbroken or surprised.
"The people I work with, it's like a big family," Fields once told News 4.
Cleo Fields presided over the first floor of the courthouse for nearly 30 years.
For just $10, you could get polished shoes and an uplifted spirit.
"I do so many, I can't even start to tell you," Fields told News 4.
On Friday, his stand was covered in flowers, photos, and signs, all to remember him.
"He's the only person I've ever met that every single person that ever met him loved him," said County Commissioner Brian Maughan. "Not just like him, thought he was a nice guy. Everybody loved him."
Maughan said over the past few weeks, Fields' stand was empty while his health declined.
Fields passed away Thursday at the age of 87.
"Our building is sadder today, and the world is sadder," said Maughan.
Before he was an attorney for 25 years, county commissioner Jason Lowe met Fields when Lowe was just an intern.
"Throughout my entire career, I used to just get my shoes shined right there," said Lowe.
As just a young attorney, Judge Natalie Mai remembers him as a guide and a friend.
"I didn't know my way around. And of course, he helped me like he helped everyone else. Then, we built our friendship over the years," said Judge Mai.
Mai said he was at Cleo's Courthouse.
He was the greeter, he directed traffic, but most importantly—
"He was everyone's therapist. Probably the most unpaid sessions in the world," said Mai.
As his sign above his stand reads, "I will heel you. I will save your sole. I will even dye for you."
Of course, this was all with an agreed-upon attorney-client privilege.
"They know I hear nothing and see nothing. They know that," Fields told us.
On his 85th birthday, Commissioners passed a resolution to declare him a courthouse legend.
"That's just the only word that seemed to fit. He's just truly a legend," said Maughan.
As they say, legends never leave us. They stay in the stories and in the shine.
"I think we all have our own different relationship with Cleo, but it's all the same, as he is the best person that you can have in your corner. And he's in everyone's corner," said Judge Mai.
Commissioner Maughan said they are working to make Cleo Fields the first person to ever lie in state at the Oklahoma County Courthouse. It would be the highest honor the courthouse could bestow. They are just working out the details on when this could happen.