VALDOSTA – Linda Walker said sometimes her mind “just goes” as it indulges in the “what ifs,” specifically, what if her son, Ron Cowart, were still alive today. 

In those times, she has to just stop.

“Because I can what if and I can what if and I come up to the same answer,” she said. “That’s really hard to think what if.”

In those moments, she has to think happier thoughts, she has to think about the light her son brought, she has to think about the good in her son’s life.

“He was a very happy child (and) he always was the life of the party,” Walker said. “When he entered the room, it’d just light up. Growing up through the years, he was with his best of friends.”

Travis Taylor was one of his friends.

Vikki Edwards, Taylor’s mother, said he was an athlete, and a child who could not lie and loved to play, if she had to describe him.

“Mothers are prejudiced, let’s start with that,” Edwards said. “He was a peacemaker, he wanted everybody to be happy, he wanted everybody just to get along and play – whatever it took.”

Taylor and Cowart loved to play in a vacant lot on Habersham Road and 2413 Bemiss Road, now named Taylor-Cowart Memorial Park in their honor. The two died in January 1988 in a car accident caused by an impaired driver.

Their deaths brought the community together, their families included, and inspired them to transform that lot into a park where children have come to play since that same year.

“It’s a fitting tribute to these two young men who spent their childhoods playing together,” the Valdosta-Lowndes Parks and Recreation Authority noted in its program for a ribbon-cutting ceremony held this week at the park.

George Page, VLPRA director, said he didn’t know the history of the park at first, but knew it needed an update. Therefore, it became his and the VLPRA’s mission to learn that history and restore the park.

“Our mission from day one was to not just take the playground out, but totally redo the park,” Page said. “And that’s what we did. I did not know the two young men that were killed in the car wreck, but every single second and every single day that I was out here (they) were in my mind.”

With 32 years now under the park’s belt, VLPRA unveiled the newly renovated Taylor-Cowart Park Tuesday, Oct. 20.

Like Page said, the update included more than just replacing playground equipment.

The park received stump removal, tree removal, a re-dug storm drain ditch, dump loads of new dirt, sod that hasn’t quite grown together yet, and 10 new parking spaces.

Suzan Garnett, VLPRA chairman, said it looks like a brand-new park.

“There was $165,000 from city SPLOST dollars that was earmarked for this project,” Garnett said. “Then VLPRA was able to put in an additional $53,000 that was pulled from our budget over the course of a two-year span.”

Renovation started in May and finished in September.

Garnett said the VLPRA saved $50,000 since it performed most of the earthwork itself. 

“We go through and do periodic safety checks and make sure that all of our equipment is safe for our citizens to use,” Garnett said. “This (Taylor-Cowart) is one of the parks that definitely needed some attention.”

The two-year process, 2018-20, involved a community effort gathering funds, planning the landscaping and performing the renovation. But Garnett said the authority had to involve the Taylor and Cowart families to go the full mile.

Edwards said Taylor would have been thrilled to see the park’s renovation and to see it being named after him.

“Number one, he would be embarrassed,” Edwards said. “He would be humble and he would be confused because he’d be trying to figure out ‘Why in the world did they put my name on this park.’”

He was just that type of person, but he’d also think it was fantastic as his nieces and nephews could play at the park. And in thinking it’s fantastic, the same would go for Cowart.

“Ron would want this to be a happy day, so I want to thank (the VLPRA) for the rededication of the Taylor-Cowart Memorial Park,” Walker said.

It was a moment reminiscent of the park’s inception and one that wouldn’t have been possible without community effort, Page said.

“Thirty-two years ago, we had this park dedicated, and we’ve come together, everybody as a team – as a community – to make this happen,” he said. “This is the end result.”