Man drowns at Stone Mountain park

A 68-year-old Snellville man died while kayaking on Stone Mountain Park lake, his widow said Saturday.

Though the cause of his death is not known, Mary Lou Dykes said she suspects he had a stroke. Belton Dykes was a strong swimmer and was capable of making the 40-foot swim from his capsized handmade wooden kayak to a dock, she said.

Witnesses told park police they saw his boat overturned Friday evening, but moments later he came to the surface and started swimming. But within a few strokes, he went under again and did not come up to the surface again.

“I think he had a stroke or something. He would not have drowned,” Mary Lou Dykes said, explaining that he was a strong swimmer.

Stone Mountain police told Atlanta television stations Belton Dykes drowned.

May Lou Dykes said park divers found her husband’s body on the bottom of the lake soon after he went down Friday — between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. They did not know his name, however, until she called around 10 p.m. to ask them to check for his car. He only carried his car keys when he was in his boat, Mary Lou Dykes said.

Belton Dykes paddled on the park lake about every other day, later in the evening in the summer, the widow said.

“He usually calls on the way home to let me know,” Mary Lou Dykes said of her husband of 43 years. “I still can’t believe it happened.”

Belton Dykes was an Army veteran and he was a retired physical therapist. He was the father of two sons and the grandfather to a girl and a boy.