Courthouse shoe shiner Cleo Fields first to lie in honor there
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - A man well known by many who have stepped foot inside the Oklahoma County Courthouse lied in honor on their second floor Monday morning. Cleo Fields, a shoe shiner on the courthouse’s first floor for nearly 30 years is the first person to ever do so there.
"I just thank God for him. He was here for me,” Fields’s son Eickey said at the ceremony. "I really love the courthouse because they really love him. We loved him."
"Everyone was in total agreement and thought it was a fitting tribute to an amazing man,” County Commissioner Brian Maughan said when talking about Fields lying in honor at the courthouse.
There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Maughan knew him well and compared it to Broadway dimming their lights for a man who’s contributions to those around him can’t be understated.
"The entire Oklahoma County court stopped today and all of Oklahoma County government stopped for a few moments today,” Maughan said.
"He was everybody's best friend and a ray of sunshine,” Oklahoma County District Judge Natalie Mai said.
Mai was one of the many lives Fields touched.
"When I was a baby lawyer, pregnant and giant as a house, I slipped on a little bit of water on the first floor, and he helped me out, dusted me off and sent me off with a smile,” she said.
His shoe shine station is now decorated with pictures, flowers and loving messages. It was a place where just $10 would get you a shine, smile and uplifted spirit. He was a legend amongst those who’ve roamed the halls who’s now remembered forever in the very same place.
"I'm going to miss him, but I know he's in a better place,” his son said. “I just thank everybody for what they done for him."
On Cleo’s 85th birthday, the Oklahoma County Commissioners passed a resolution to declare him a courthouse legend. He was 87 years old when he died.