Street renamed after legendary lifeguard <\/p>\n
By Leigh Jones <\/p>\n
The Daily News <\/p>\n
Published May 24, 2008 <\/p>\n
GALVESTON \u2014 Leroy Colombo, Galveston\u2019s best-known lifeguard, last
\nweek received another posthumous honor when the city council voted
\nunanimously to give his name to a two-block stretch of 57th Street. <\/p>\n
The name change will start at Seawall Boulevard and end at Maco
\nStreet, just past the Kroger parking lot. <\/p>\n
The street will be referred to as Leroy Colombo\u2019s View and 57th
\nStreet on signs. <\/p>\n
The spot is appropriate because Colombo patrolled beaches in the area
\nwhile he was working as a lifeguard for the city of Galveston, said
\nDonald Mize, who requested the street naming. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe saved a lot of lives right there along that stretch of
\nbeach,\u201d he told the city council. <\/p>\n
Colombo is credited by the 1976 Guinness Book of World Records with
\nsaving 907 lives, but in a short biography written for the council,
\nMize said the real number should be more than 1,000. More than 90
\nrescues are not officially listed, Mize said. <\/p>\n
Colombo was born in Galveston in 1905. A bout of spinal meningitis in
\n1912 left him deaf and mute, but his illness couldn\u2019t keep him from
\nthe Gulf of Mexico. His brothers taught him to swim as a way to help
\nhim recover the full use of his legs. <\/p>\n
When he was 18, Colombo was hired as a regular lifeguard for
\nMurdock\u2019s bath house after serving as a volunteer lifeguard since
\nage 15. <\/p>\n
According to Mize\u2019s research, Colombo\u2019s numerous rescues were a
\nregular feature in The Daily News. <\/p>\n
He entered and won many endurance swimming races, including a 15-mile
\nswim in 1927 thought to be one of the longest ever staged at the time
\nin the United States for amateur swimmers. He completed the race in 11
\nand a half hours. The only other person to finish was Colombo\u2019s
\nbrother, Cinto, three-and-a-half hours later. <\/p>\n
Colombo worked many different jobs during his life, continually
\nsaving stranded swimmers but not being listed as an employee of the
\nGalveston beach patrol until 1945. <\/p>\n
At 61 years old, Colombo was still patrolling the beaches and is
\ncredited with saving 38 lives that year, according to Mize. <\/p>\n
He retired the next year and died in 1974. <\/p>\n
The Galveston Island Beach Patrol\u2019s annual fundraiser is named for
\nColombo, and Mize has submitted an application to the Texas Historical
\nCommission to have a historical maker created in his honor and placed
\non the outside of the Galveston Island Convention Center. <\/p>\n
LInk: http:\/\/galvestondailynews.com\/story.lasso?ewcd=ac7db8145ce47c5a<\/p>\n
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Street renamed after legendary lifeguard By Leigh Jones The Daily News Published May 24, 2008 GALVESTON \u2014 Leroy Colombo, Galveston\u2019s best-known lifeguard, last week received another posthumous honor when the city council voted unanimously to give his name to a…<\/p>\n