Family, motorcycles and CB radios went hand in hand for Kevin Baynes. As a child he took notes from a favorite uncle, who taught him how to ride and how to work the radio, things he continued to enjoy as an adult.
“You knew which house on the street was ours,” joked Tunya Baynes, his wife of more than 20 years, who lives in Ellenwood. “The one with the big antenna. He loved that CB radio and had a ham (radio) license and everything.”
Mr. Baynes' love for radio was widely known in his family. Most relatives knew his handle in the radio world was Mr. One-zero-six, but not a soul knew why he picked that sequence of numbers. But there was no mystery to the name he identified with when riding his beloved Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14, and in the motorcycle world. There he was simply known as Philly, a nod to his hometown of Philadelphia. He rode with DD214 Military Riders out of Atlanta, and loved to race at the racetrack, Mrs. Baynes said.
On Feb. 23, Sgt. 1st Class Kevin Lamont Baynes, of Ellenwood, had big plans. He’d been visiting colleges with his son, and namesake, Kevin L. Baynes II, and that afternoon they were supposed to visit Georgia State University. But near the intersection of Panola Road and Ga. 155, he lost control, hit a guardrail and was thrown from his bike, his wife said. He died from injuries sustained in the accident. He was 44.
A funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday at Bouldercrest Church of Christ. Burial, with full military honors, will follow the service at Fairview Memorial Gardens, Stockbridge. Donald Trimble Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.
The youngest of eight children, Mr. Baynes knew exactly what he was going to do after high school graduation, said Brenda Joseph, a sister who lives in Philadelphia. When he announced to the family he was enlisting in the Army, there was no changing his mind, she said.
“He always knew what he was going to do before he said anything to anybody,” Mrs. Joseph said. “He was always thinking ahead. So many young men don’t know what to do with themselves, but he didn’t have that problem.”
After basic training, Mr. Baynes was stationed in Germany and then at Fort Benning. Once he got to Georgia, he never left, and his sister thinks she knows why.
“He never left after he met Tunya,” she said with a laugh. “Like I said, he was a man with a plan.”
Mrs. Baynes met her husband by chance. Her sister worked with one of his sisters, and the women thought she could show him around.
“We were really just buddies at first,” she said, her voice getting lighter with each word. “But we did hang out a lot while he was on leave, before he had to report. In fact I took him to Fort Benning on the day he had to report because his car had not been shipped from Germany yet.”
After his Army service was complete he transferred to the Army Nation Guard, where he was active at the time of his death.
Mr. Baynes’ family remembers him as a caring man who would help anyone in need.
“We’d be driving along and he’d see somebody with a flat, or who needed gas, and he’d say to me, ‘I’m gonna stop and help them,’” his wife said.
Mrs. Joseph said many of the young men in the family looked to Mr. Baynes for guidance, including her son.
“I think he’d listen to his uncle before he’d listen to me,” his sister said. “And he taught so much to his own son. Everything he was, you can see in his son.”
In addition to his wife, son and sister, Mr. Baynes is also survived by his mother, Icyleen Booker of Philadelphia, Pa.; step-mother, Lenora Anderson of Philadelphia, Pa.; brothers, Joseph Baynes, Jr. of Dallas, Pa., and Ralph Baynes and Daniel Baynes, both of Philadelphia, Pa.; and four additional sisters, Shelia Garrett of Ellenwood, and Sonia Baynes, Charlotte Baynes and Anna Anderson, all of Philadelphia, Pa.
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