The monumental influence of Joe Delaney’s story shines in new tribute to Chiefs hero
In this paradoxical time of both intense pause and profound awakening, amid the paralyzing grip of the pandemic and the fervent movement for social justice, with so much sadness and yet so much new hope, clarity and firm ground might seem in short supply.
Which makes for a fine time to appreciate what has become literally a fresh foundation to a story that always will resound as an affirmation of the power of the human spirit … and a story that has particularly thought-provoking elements and examples to consider just now.
On Wednesday at Johnson Granite Supply in North Kansas City, company owner Tripp Johnson and designer Kaylee Robinson continued the intricate and meticulous process of creating a monument to former Chiefs star Joe Delaney that Johnson next week will drive to Monroe, Louisiana for installation.
Thirty-seven years after No. 37 drowned trying to save children in a pond at Chennault Park in Monroe, the memorial that was the vision of the police diver who tried to save Delaney will be dedicated on June 28 … a day before the precise anniversary.
The scene will conjure a solemn moment to mourn again and make for renewed consciousness of Delaney, his widow, Carolyn, and daughters Tamika, Crystal and Joanna and their Delaney 37 Foundation.
He will be commemorated with a 3,600-pound display enhanced by such flourishes as lasered-on images of Delaney and his family, Biblically-inspired words paralleling those on his gravesite in Haughton (“Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for another”) and the image of the Presidential Citizens Medal he was awarded posthumously.
“Maybe there are those heroes that are out there that say (to themselves) not knowing how to swim wasn’t the difference between me helping somebody or not,” Johnson said. “That kind of brings tingles to me right now.”
Also inspiring, though, is the way this cause caught on after Marvin Dearman, the diver, woke up with what he called a revelation after after the Chiefs won Super Bowl LIV.
Something about the magic of the moment for the Chiefs, the symmetry of the 37 years and the way he has stayed haunted by that day coalesced with the conviction that now was the time for this to happen.
Then the idea took root in such a deep and personal way that it overwhelmed Dearman. Well over 100 people from across the nation donated $37 apiece or more to support the effort. Many included touching letters.
Within 48 hours of The Star writing about Dearman’s wish, Johnson contact Dearman and offered to donate the monument, an enhanced design and installation.
“You know, when it’s all said and done, you want to leave it a little bit better than you found it, OK?” Johnson said Wednesday. “This is just one point of this (project), and it’s nice to participate in honoring a hero.”
He paused and added, “Where can this go?”
In the context of this particular moment in history, there also are some exemplary and underappreciated points to be made about Dearman, with whom I’ve become friends over the last few years and for whom I dearly hope there is healing to be found in this.
Dearman, who worked with the department from 1971-2002 and now manages Kilpatrick’s Serenity Gardens Cemetery, was on patrol about 7 miles away when he got the call about possible drownings that day. He arrived to chaos, with hundreds looking on and dozens nearby.
Another policeman told him three kids had gone in the murky water. One had somehow made it out, but the other two had disappeared.
He put on his scuba gear and soon emerged with one child and administered CPR until other emergency personnel took over. Then he found the other child and began giving CPR and taking off his gear … only for another policeman to approach and tell him that a man had gone in the water after them.
It was Delaney, who had handed a bystander his wallet as he hurried to the water, and whom a frantic Dearman soon pulled out of the water.
All these years later, Dearman still thinks of the drownings of the two boys and Delaney as “the experience that never ends.”
All these years later, Dearman, who is white, has remained close to the Delaney family, which knows he did all he could.
“That spoke volumes to me,” said Johnson, who has yet to meet Dearman but has come to admire him through this endeavor.
Perhaps particularly now, as matters of race in relation to police loom large in our minds.
“That’s a story within this story,” Johnson said.
Within the abiding story of Delaney being given fresh testimony now, testimony that perhaps one day we will see appropriately memorialized here in Kansas City.
And Johnson figures it’s especially timely and illuminating in this time of flux, making for a beacon of sorts.
“I want to be that person,” he said.