COVINGTON — When Officer Thomas J. “Tommy” Harris collapsed at his crossing guard post in 1926, the “Kiddie Cop” left behind his own two young children and hundreds of broken-hearted pupils at Covington's First District School.

        For 14 years, the surrogate big brother had manned a crossing at Fifth Street and Scott Boulevard, better known as “Tommy's Corner.”

        To honor the late officer, only 42 when he died, First District pupils donated $59.57 worth of pennies from their allowances and installed a plaque at the corner where their protector had stood for so many years.

        The plaque stayed at the intersection until the late 1970s, when it was removed for new sidewalks. Never reinstalled, it lay in storage for years at the Covington Police Department and later was attached to a pillar on the south side of First District School, known today as Two Rivers Middle School.

        Now Covington officials want to return the plaque to Officer Tommy's Corner.

        When a new city parking garage opens at Fifth and Scott in December 2002, Covington city commissioners have asked that the plaque purchased by Officer Harris' young charges be installed onit.

        Bids for the parking garage are expected to be awarded at tonight's Covington City Commission meeting, with construction beginning next month.

        Two weeks ago, Mayor Butch Callery proposed mov ing the plaque back to its original spot, after learning of its history.

        “The children that he protected wanted it placed at the corner he watched,” Mr. Callery said. “That's why they took up the collection and placed it there.”

        Among those who watched the mayor's proposal on cable television was former First District pupil Marjory Wallingford Meanwell of Covington, now 83.

        “Officer Tommy was bright, strong, friendly, caring — all those good things,” she said. An 8-year-old second-grader at the time of Officer Tommy's death, Ms. Meanwell said that she is excited to see the plaque returned to its rightful home.

        “I just don't want to see it get lost in the shuffle,” Ms. Meanwell said.

        When Officer Harris died of heart disease a month after his collapse, his obituary was front-page news.

        Covington's public schools closed on the day of his funeral, and hundreds of children marched in pouring rain to his service at St. Mary Cathedral in Covington.

        The plaque was dedicated at Tommy's Corner on June 1, 1927.

        “You don't think about death when you're 8 years old,” Ms. Meanwell said. “But I still remember the shock and sadness when Officer Tommy died.”

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