Baby Boy Horry remembered along with Baby Grace at annual memorial service

Baby Boy Horry was warmly remembered on a chilly December afternoon Friday, which marked the seventh year of his death.

New at this year’s service was his neighbor: Baby Grace.

Both babies have been laid to rest at Hillcrest Cemetery on S.C. 544, across from Coastal Carolina University, in an area just for infants facing the highway called “Baby Land,” where a total of 210 other babies have been buried there starting in 1953.

The Horry County Coroner’s office has a memorial service each year to honor Baby Boy Horry’s short life, which authorities said was about one day long for the white infant who was deemed viable and would have otherwise survived with routine medical care if not left alone in the elements.

“We just want to keep his memory alive, and we hope the service stirs someone’s conscience so they’ll come forward,” Horry County Coroner Robert Edge said.

A group of about 40 people, including police, county officials, and members of motorcycle group Rolling Thunder, who adopted Baby Boy Horry, were at his graveside Friday afternoon to honor his memory.

“I think it’s so nice that everybody is coming out. It’s fantastic that this many people come out every year to remember him and hopefully something like that can also happen for Baby Grace,” said Stephanie Cutler, who attended the service for Baby Boy Horry with her 9-month-old daughter.

Cutler has been spreading the message about the movement to get Baby Grace a permanent headstone on her Facebook page called “Prayers for Baby Grace,” which she started soon after Nov. 3, which is when the 5-month-old was lost by her mother, Sarah Toney, in a rain-swollen Socastee creek.

Cutler, who also helped organize a vigil for Baby Grace, said anyone wishing to donate money to help Hillcrest Cemetery reach its $2,150 goal to order Baby Grace’s headstone can give money directly to the cemetery, which had raised about $700 by Friday afternoon.

“I have not created any pages to collect money on behalf of Baby Grace. The only money transactions should be made directly to Hillcrest toward the headstone. The only money that needs to be raised is for her headstone as all other expenses have been paid for. The headstone is the final expense needed to finally let her rest in peace,” Cutler said.

Baby Boy Horry’s permanent headstone was also funded through donations from local businesses and area residents.

At his memorial service, the Rev. Wayne Brown delivered a message and frequently mentioned Baby Grace.

Brown said prayers, read scripture, and led the group in a few Christmas carols, including “Away in a Manner” and “Silent Night” and stressed that all life is a “precious treasure from God.”

Laura Boronski, invited by Rolling Thunder, sang a song she wrote called “Rockabye.”

She said the song came to her while she was rocking her newborn son.

“When I wrote it my heart went out to all those poor moms who never got that chance to just sink into a rocker with their baby and just sing to them and rock them and love them,” she said.

Baby Boy Horry was placed at Hillcrest Cemetery after he was discovered Dec. 4, 2008. On that day, utility workers found the infant inside a shopping bag in a wooded area by Meadowbrook Drive near Conway, but the case has gone cold over the years.

“… Either someone’s conscience starts bothering them and they tell us, or they’ll tell someone who will then tell in secret,” Edge said about solving the 7-year-old case. “He never had a chance at life, and I think people just feel sorry for him around Christmas, and other times too.”

A small Christmas tree donated by Daisy Fair Flowers was placed at his grave as it is each year, according to Daved Kinard, florist and store manager, who also donates seasonal flowers quarterly.

This year, Kinard placed a Christmas tree at the gravesite of Baby Grace as well.

“I just think it’s important to give back … I just felt compelled to do something…,” Kinard said about placing flowers for the babies.

Kinard said he and the staff there are blessed to be a busy flower shop, and they believe in “paying it forward” in the community. Kinard also made two funeral pieces for Baby Boy Horry’s memorial service Friday.

“You see the hurt in people’s eyes when they come in for sympathy flowers, and there was no one to suffer that for Baby Boy Horry,” he said.

He said he also quickly placed a funeral spray over top of Baby Grace’s grave the day after she was buried on Nov. 18.

Her burial service was led by Horry County Police Chaplain Dennis Williams and attended by police, Horry County coroners, and other searchers, and four or five people who appeared to be family, including the Baby Grace’s father Patrick Olberg, Edge said.

Baby Grace’s mother, Toney, 33, of Myrtle Beach is jailed at J. Reuben Long Detention Center and charged with homicide by child abuse in connection with the 5-month-old’s death.

Toney signed permission for her child to be buried at Hillcrest Cemetery, who donated the last available plot in their Baby Land east section to Grace Carlson Santa Cruz.

The cemetery hopes to raise enough money for Baby Grace’s headstone before Christmas and Robyn Jones, Hillcrest Cemetery family service and sales counselor, said they’ve already designed a headstone that displays a child-like angel petting a sheep and trimmed with a border of small hearts, which will take anywhere from four to eight weeks to arrive for placement.

“The community has stepped in for Baby Grace, just like they were willing to step in for Baby Boy Horry,” Jones said, adding more funds are needed.

Many community members who have mourned for both Baby Grace and Baby Boy Horry have said that the losses highlight the need to further spread the message that options exist for parents in distress.

Carrie Dunn, pregnancy counselor and adoption specialist at Bethany Christian Services in Myrtle Beach, spoke at a vigil for Baby Grace on Nov. 14, said they help families get the care they need. Dunn said their organization offers counseling services for pregnant and postpartum women to get the help the resources needed. They also arrange open or closed adoptions and aid in helping parents get interim care for children.

Counselors will meet distressed girls at their homes, out in public, or at the center, and help is also available to birth fathers and birth grandparents, Dunn said.

“We just hope to be the place they reach out to for help,” Dunn said. “Ultimately our goal is to show these girls who feel unloved love and encouragement.”

This story was originally published December 4, 2015 at 4:27 PM with the headline "Baby Boy Horry remembered along with Baby Grace at annual memorial service."