An Ironton police chief who was killed in the line of duty will get his street banner, compliments of the Fraternal Order of Police.

Katrina Keith, city benefit specialist, said the local FOP contacted her after the story ran in The Tribune about a move to honor the late Gene Markel with a banner like other notable city residents have been given.

“I think it’s great,” Gerry Markel, who is Gene Markel’s son, said.

Markel said he is going to take the necessary information and a photograph of his father to the Ironton Port Authority to have placed on the banner.

Meanwhile, Gerry Markel and his sister, Jeanne Ann Markel Miller, both said they do not know the two men, Andrew Day and Anthony Harper, who last week announced they would raise the funds needed to pay for the banner.

The Markel family is now looking at the family tree and think the men may be distant relatives.

The two men first approached The Tribune with their proposal to have a banner erected in Markel’s honor. They were directed to Keith who informed them how to proceed with their proposal.

Day and Harper then returned to The Tribune office and said they did not have $250 needed and would go door to door and solicit the necessary funds.

“I appreciate what people were doing, we just don’t know who they are,” Gerry Markel said.

In addition to his children, Gerry Markel and Jeanne Ann Miller, Gene Markel was also survived his wife, Joyce and by a son, Steve.

Several years ago the city began honoring native sons and daughters who made significant contributions to their community or even to their state or country with a banner on a street utility pole. Notables include football hall of famer Coy Bacon, former lawmaker Oakley Collins and former Judge Frank McCown.