Butch Kelley was as on-time dependable as the drumbeats at 52 Park in the South Bronx.
In lous
y weather or health, he was there to volunteer at the salsa concerts put on by a scrappy group of volunteers that rescued the park from the ravages of abandonment in 1980.
Joe Conzo Jr. Ernest Kelley, known as Butch, in 1980.
“Whatever we did to create stability, Butch was a part of it,” said Al Quiñones, a member of 52 People for Progress, the community group that has nurtured the park, formally known as Playground 52, back to life. “He was always the first to say he was down. Whatever was needed, he was down.”
Maybe it’s because he, too, knew what it was like to rebound from hard times. Ernest — as he was born — was a member of the Dirty Dozens street gang in the 1960s, one of the many denim-clad cliques that swaggered down streets strewn with castoffs, human and other. His fortunes changed when Evelina Antonetty, the founder of United Bronx Parents, pulled him aside, gave him a job and watched him become a trusted counselor to legions of young people in the Longwood neighborhood.
As a man — and a serious salsero — Mr. Kelley harbored a passion for 52 Park. So his friends were worried when they did not hear from him for much of this month. Then, on June 17, Mr. Quiñones heard from Mr. Kelley’s former wife: after battling respiratory and other illnesses, he had died in late May and might have been buried at the potter’s field on Hart Island. He was 56. Read more..
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