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He gave his life to save 2 children
Kent Sandefur remembered as man who always helped out
DAVID PERLMUTT AND TED REED
Staff Writers
To his friends, Kent Sandefur lived his life a hero, and last week died one.
They say he was forever helping out. If a family needed a hand building a swing set, Sandefur of York, S.C., was there banging nails. If a co-worker at US Airways needed a day off to be with family, Sandefur was quick to volunteer.
He and wife, Becky, often looked after children of friends.
Last week, off the shore of Tybee Island, Ga., near Savannah, Sandefur and two children of friends were shell hunting on a sandbar when suddenly all three were fighting for their lives after a tide swept them into the ocean. Sandefur helped the children, ages 9 and 6, to safety.
He didn't make it.
Today, Sandefur's minister, the Rev. Mark Crews, will preside over a memorial service for the 36-year-old airline utility worker at 7 p.m. at Eastview Baptist Church in Rock Hill. For Crews, it will be particularly poignant. It is his children who Sandefur helped rescue.
"It was just his character to stay and help," Crews said. "He stayed with my son and attempted to hold his head above water and push him to shore. Under any circumstances, he would have been out there to help whoever it was."
This week, workers at US Airways established a fund for Sandefur's children. He had moved to the area from Indiana in the mid-1990s to work for the airline.
"He was a giving man -- of his time, and donations if someone was ill and needed help," said fellow utility agent Michael Armstrong, who set up the fund.
Another co-worker, Rich Buschel, said Sandefur was deeply proud of his family and worked overtime to support them.
"He was always talking about his little boy," Buschel said. "He worked so hard he once fell asleep at the wheel going home and wrecked his truck."
The Sandefurs, each with a son from a previous marriage, were in the process of adopting a 7-month-old baby and were to sign custody papers on their return from vacation, Crews said.
"They wanted to have a child together," he said. "They loved children."
Becky Sandefur looked after friends' children during the day, including Crews' son before he was old enough to go to school.
Last week's vacation was Sandefur's first week-long trip with his wife of seven years, Becky Sandefur said.
They had brought the Crewses' children as companions for their 4-year-old son and the 7-month-old baby, and camped near the beach.
Thursday, Sandefur urged his wife to join him on a walk to a place he found special. "He kept saying, `It's so beautiful,' " she said. "He wanted to look for shells."
He said he wanted to find her a sand dollar -- she'd never had one.
So they all set out, walking north along the shoreline, ending up at low tide at a point where the Savannah River merges with the Atlantic, and where the tides can be treacherous.
"I know from personal experience, the tides there just rip," said Lt. Will Whitehead with the U.S. Coast Guard in Charleston.
While Becky Sandefur and their children sat on the sandbar, Kent and the Crews children walked out another 50 yards hunting for shells.
One minute, Becky Sandefur said, they were in ankle-deep water and the next in the ocean over their heads.
"We don't know what happened, whether the sandbar collapsed, or they got caught in a riptide," Crews said.
Crews' daughter began swimming for shore; his son and Sandefur were pushed away. He shouted to the girl to keep swimming; he stuck with the boy.
Becky Sandefur helped Crews' daughter in and told her to run for help as she kept an eye on her husband and the boy.
"My husband had (Crews' son) on his shoulders to keep him out of the water," she said. "He pushed him towards shore and told him to swim as hard as he could."
A vacationer from Indiana called 911, ran to the scene and into the water "at one point up to his neck, to coach my son to swim to shore," Crews said.
"He said he never saw Kent."
Soon, other rescuers arrived, including members of the Tybee Police Department and lifeguard station, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
They searched until dark with divers and helicopters, and then again Friday morning before calling off the search at 10:45 a.m.
Crews and his wife drove immediately to Tybee; friends took the children back to York. "We prayed and hoped something miraculous would happen," Crews said. "From a time standpoint, it became a grieving process."
On Saturday, Becky Sandefur took relatives to the beach. There, she looked down and found a perfect sand dollar.
"Right in front of where it happened," she said. "So he gave me my sand dollar."
On Sunday, Crews gathered Becky and relatives on the same beach for a simple service.
After talking about Kent as a man "who served others" and "who was a hero beyond words," the pastor quoted a verse from John 15:13: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. That's exactly what Kent did. He laid down his life for a friend."
Want to Help?
To help Kent Sandefur's children, make donations payable to the "Kent Sandefur Children's Fund" and mail to Piedmont Aviation Credit Union, 4700 Yorkmont Road, Charlotte, N.C. 28208.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reach David Perlmutt: (704) 358-5061; [email protected].
Kent Sandefur remembered as man who always helped out
DAVID PERLMUTT AND TED REED
Staff Writers
To his friends, Kent Sandefur lived his life a hero, and last week died one.
They say he was forever helping out. If a family needed a hand building a swing set, Sandefur of York, S.C., was there banging nails. If a co-worker at US Airways needed a day off to be with family, Sandefur was quick to volunteer.
He and wife, Becky, often looked after children of friends.
Last week, off the shore of Tybee Island, Ga., near Savannah, Sandefur and two children of friends were shell hunting on a sandbar when suddenly all three were fighting for their lives after a tide swept them into the ocean. Sandefur helped the children, ages 9 and 6, to safety.
He didn't make it.
Today, Sandefur's minister, the Rev. Mark Crews, will preside over a memorial service for the 36-year-old airline utility worker at 7 p.m. at Eastview Baptist Church in Rock Hill. For Crews, it will be particularly poignant. It is his children who Sandefur helped rescue.
"It was just his character to stay and help," Crews said. "He stayed with my son and attempted to hold his head above water and push him to shore. Under any circumstances, he would have been out there to help whoever it was."
This week, workers at US Airways established a fund for Sandefur's children. He had moved to the area from Indiana in the mid-1990s to work for the airline.
"He was a giving man -- of his time, and donations if someone was ill and needed help," said fellow utility agent Michael Armstrong, who set up the fund.
Another co-worker, Rich Buschel, said Sandefur was deeply proud of his family and worked overtime to support them.
"He was always talking about his little boy," Buschel said. "He worked so hard he once fell asleep at the wheel going home and wrecked his truck."
The Sandefurs, each with a son from a previous marriage, were in the process of adopting a 7-month-old baby and were to sign custody papers on their return from vacation, Crews said.
"They wanted to have a child together," he said. "They loved children."
Becky Sandefur looked after friends' children during the day, including Crews' son before he was old enough to go to school.
Last week's vacation was Sandefur's first week-long trip with his wife of seven years, Becky Sandefur said.
They had brought the Crewses' children as companions for their 4-year-old son and the 7-month-old baby, and camped near the beach.
Thursday, Sandefur urged his wife to join him on a walk to a place he found special. "He kept saying, `It's so beautiful,' " she said. "He wanted to look for shells."
He said he wanted to find her a sand dollar -- she'd never had one.
So they all set out, walking north along the shoreline, ending up at low tide at a point where the Savannah River merges with the Atlantic, and where the tides can be treacherous.
"I know from personal experience, the tides there just rip," said Lt. Will Whitehead with the U.S. Coast Guard in Charleston.
While Becky Sandefur and their children sat on the sandbar, Kent and the Crews children walked out another 50 yards hunting for shells.
One minute, Becky Sandefur said, they were in ankle-deep water and the next in the ocean over their heads.
"We don't know what happened, whether the sandbar collapsed, or they got caught in a riptide," Crews said.
Crews' daughter began swimming for shore; his son and Sandefur were pushed away. He shouted to the girl to keep swimming; he stuck with the boy.
Becky Sandefur helped Crews' daughter in and told her to run for help as she kept an eye on her husband and the boy.
"My husband had (Crews' son) on his shoulders to keep him out of the water," she said. "He pushed him towards shore and told him to swim as hard as he could."
A vacationer from Indiana called 911, ran to the scene and into the water "at one point up to his neck, to coach my son to swim to shore," Crews said.
"He said he never saw Kent."
Soon, other rescuers arrived, including members of the Tybee Police Department and lifeguard station, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
They searched until dark with divers and helicopters, and then again Friday morning before calling off the search at 10:45 a.m.
Crews and his wife drove immediately to Tybee; friends took the children back to York. "We prayed and hoped something miraculous would happen," Crews said. "From a time standpoint, it became a grieving process."
On Saturday, Becky Sandefur took relatives to the beach. There, she looked down and found a perfect sand dollar.
"Right in front of where it happened," she said. "So he gave me my sand dollar."
On Sunday, Crews gathered Becky and relatives on the same beach for a simple service.
After talking about Kent as a man "who served others" and "who was a hero beyond words," the pastor quoted a verse from John 15:13: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. That's exactly what Kent did. He laid down his life for a friend."
Want to Help?
To help Kent Sandefur's children, make donations payable to the "Kent Sandefur Children's Fund" and mail to Piedmont Aviation Credit Union, 4700 Yorkmont Road, Charlotte, N.C. 28208.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reach David Perlmutt: (704) 358-5061; [email protected].
