A U.S. Coast Guard vessel departed from Station Islamorada on the afternoon of June 20. There have been no emergencies or rescues; relatively, a particular burial was about to happen at sea close to Alligator Reef Lighthouse for Jeffrey Steven Kime.
A U.S. Coast Guard member from 1959 to 1965, the Ohio-born Kime spent 4 of these months manning the towering, majestic lighthouse roughly 4 nautical miles off Islamorada with two different keepers.
Kime handed away Feb. 25, 2024 following a battle with Parkinson’s. He was 82 years of age.
Per his want, a few of his ashes had been unfold not removed from the lighthouse that held a particular place in his journey. The ocean burial was led by Coast Guard Chaplain Josh Johnson. In attendance had been Kime’s daughter, Kelley; son, Casey, and daughter-in-law, Monica; and fellow Coast Guard Station Islamorada members.
“We had a yr of mourning,” Kelley mentioned because the Coast Guard vessel carrying Kime’s ashes headed out to sea on a sunny and clear afternoon. “This was extra celebrating and placing my dad the place he needed to be.”
Alligator Reef Lighthouse was Kime’s first place away from house. He was 19 on the time.
He’d spend three weeks manning the lighthouse earlier than taking a dinghy again to shore for per week off.
A day for Kime and the opposite lighthouse keepers started at 8 a.m. with breakfast. Then it will be on to cleansing the decks and dealing within the engine room.
They might stop at midday due to the extreme warmth. Throughout their leisure time, they might hang around on the decks, swim, fish and even go scuba diving.
Kelley mentioned the tales going again to her father’s days on the lighthouse didn’t come out till afterward in life. He reminisced over the times fishing from the lighthouse with the opposite males on responsibility. A small hammerhead shark, which Kelley believed they known as “Junior,” would seem each time he’d throw his line into the water.
Throughout scuba diving, Kime would get better a number of cannonballs and sq. nails across the lighthouse. Kime believed the nails had been from the usAlligator, one in all 5 schooners constructed for the suppression of slavery and piracy throughout the presidency of James Madison. He started treating the cannonballs in hopes he might hold them.
Then there was Hurricane Donna in September 1960. The class 4 storm made landfall at Duck Key; the results started to be felt on the reef lights together with Sombrero Key and Alligator Reef on the night time of Sept. 9. The storm’s pressure was felt by the Coast Guard keepers, together with Kime, who was stationed at Alligator Gentle that night time.
Kelley recollects her father saying the winds had been so robust that the metal shutter doorways had been separated from the surface. There have been additionally some 8 inches of rain within the barrack space the place Kime and two different males had been ready out Donna.
“I’ll always remember being contained in the little cabin right here and listening to components of the lighthouse ripping away,” Kime mentioned in a Nov. 24, 1960 Miami Information article.
At sure instances, Kime and the others might stand within the gentle chamber or on the outer rails and see St. Elmo’s Hearth, a pure electrical phenomenon the place a bluish or violet glow is seen on the ideas of pointed objects like ship masts throughout thunderstorms.
Ultimately, Kime completed his responsibility on the lighthouse and left the Keys for Mackinac Island. He later moved to Dallas, married his spouse, Barbara, and had a household of 4 youngsters. He turned a grasp plumber, working within the trade from 1967 to 2006.
Kelley mentioned her father had a plot at a cemetery in Dallas, however he requested her three days earlier than he handed if he may very well be cremated so his ashes may very well be unfold at Alligator Reef Lighthouse.
“With him having Parkinson’s, we urged him to maintain doing his workouts. We advised him in case you get the power, we’ll take you to see the lighthouse. He known as it his lighthouse,” Kelley mentioned.
Sadly, a remaining journey by no means got here to be earlier than Kime handed.
Understanding how near-and-dear the lighthouse was to her father, Kelley proceeded to name a pal in Clint Brookover, who grew up within the Keys and went to Coral Shores Excessive College, to assist discover some contacts to get a ship.
In the end, she received in contact with the U.S. Coast Guard, which gladly provided its providers to supply a burial at sea with honors. Chaplain Johnson supplied a lighthouse keeper’s prayer. It was adopted up with a remembrance, a flag presentation and Kime’s ashes unfold within the crystal blue waters close to Alligator Lighthouse. The ceremony concluded with the taking part in of faucets.
“I assumed it was phenomenal. I used to be overcome simply seeing the lighthouse,” Kelley mentioned. “It simply did one thing to me and my brother. We noticed it coming in on the freeway, however if you’re on the market near it within the water, it’s an entire completely different factor.”
As Kime’s obituary reads, he leaves behind a good looking legacy of affection — particularly for the lighthouse that stole his coronary heart as a younger man.