Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 24, 1993 TAG: 9303240163
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Lon Wagner
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
MAN DECLARED HERO FOR RIVER RESCUE TRY
Two years after he drowned trying to rescue a man and a small boy in the New River, Kenneth Wayne Jones has officially been declared a hero.Jones, who was 30 at the time of his death, was one of 91 people recognized in the latest annual report of the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission.
In addition to Jones, a Bassett contractor, 17 other people who died during heroic attempts to save lives were honored by the commission.
"He was always willing to help anyone that needed it," Jimmy Jones said of his brother. "It was just a brave thing that he did. I hate it that it cost him his life."
Jones' widow, Terry, and his two children - Kenneth Wayne Jr. and Samantha Gail - were awarded $2,500 and a bronze medal for his heroism.
On June 29, 1991, a Saturday afternoon, Jones and three others were fishing in the New River in Pulaski County.
They saw a man and a small boy - connected to his father by a rope - wading and fishing in the river.
A strong current pulled the man and boy into a deep hole. The four men - Kenneth and Jimmy Jones and two friends - managed to pull the father and son to safety.
But Kenneth Jones got dragged into the hole, and his three companions couldn't save him.
"He was trying to help and there was so much going on at one time," Jimmy Jones said at the time.
"He wasn't thinking about himself."
In 1904, after a Harwick, Pa., coal mine disaster that killed nearly 200 people, Pittsburgh steel baron Andrew Carnegie established the hero fund. Some of those killed in the disaster were rescuers who had entered the mine to try to save survivors.
In 89 years, the fund has recognized 7,710 people as heroes.
More than 67,000 people have been nominated.
- LON WAGNER