Bench Dedicated For Drowned ‘Lost Sons’

Photo/Town of Huntington
Seated on the bench dedicate to Huntington’s “Lost Sons,” are Ernest Edwards, Count Ramon Edwards’ brother; event organizer Kevin Bailey; and Carlton Agudio, Kevin Agudio’s cousin. Councilwoman Tracey Edwards is standing behind the bench among other family and friends.

By Jano Tantongco

jtantongco@longislandergroup.com

Friends of two 10-year-old boys who drowned decades ago in a sump adjacent to a Huntington Station park found closure last weekend through a bench dedication ceremony marking 50 years since the drownings.

“We are having a celebration of life and community in honor of Huntington’s lost sons,” said Kevin Bailey, organizer of the event, which was held at Alfred Walker Park.

Bailey, a 59-year-old children’s book author, said he and his late twin brother, Keith, were close friends with the boys, Kevin Agudio and County “Moo Moo” Ramon Edwards. He called them “shadows of one another.”

“We didn’t have closure. When the boys passed away, there was no grief counseling in the schools back then. They drowned on Saturday, and we were back on school on Monday,” Bailey said. “There was no closure whatsoever. So, we had 50 years of sadness carrying around in our hearts.”

Agudio was found that May 13, 1967 afternoon by Moo Moo’s father, George Edwards, floating in the water and Moo Moo was found hours later in the mud at the bottom of the Suffolk County-owned sump, according to the a report in the May 18, 1967 issue of The Long-Islander.

It was speculated that the boys either scaled the five-foot-high fence or passed through an unhinged gate to get into the 40-foot-deep sump, which contained about 8 feet of water.

The boys apparently had used a 4-foot-square construction pallet as a makeshift raft. In the aftermath, residents then called on the town to create higher barriers around the recharge basin and for a relocated recreation area.

A memorial service was held at Mt. Calvary Church to honor their memories, then, family and friends went to the park to dedicate the bench, which was donated by Huntington Councilwoman Tracey Edwards and her husband, Walter, who was a cousin of Count Ramon Edwards.