17-year-old prom king who just graduated drowns, officials say. ‘Genuinely kind person’
An Iowa community is mourning the death of a 17-year-old prom king after his body was pulled from a lake June 26, Iowa officials said.
“Words cannot express the depth of the sadness felt by the school community in this horrible tragedy,” Centerville Community Schools said in a June 27 Facebook post.
Ayden Beeson “was the kid every teacher and coach loves,” his tennis coach Tyler Baze said in a Facebook post.
The football and tennis player was an “active member” of the Centerville schools community, known for his athletic accomplishments, contributions to the school as a summer maintenance worker and his election as prom king before he graduated in the spring, school officials said.
Beeson was swimming in Rathbun Lake in Moravia when he went under the water and never resurfaced, the Appanoose County Sheriff’s Office said in a June 26 news release.
A person called 911 when Beeson went under. Rescuers pulled his body from the water approximately one hour later and pronounced the teen dead at the scene, deputies said.
“Students and staff recognized that Ayden was a genuinely kind person who treated every student and staff member with respect,” the school said.
Beeson’s drowning is still under investigation, deputies said.
“It was an honor to be a coach of Ayden Beeson,” Baze said. “On top of being a great athlete his best quality was him just being him.”
Centerville is about an 85-mile drive southeast from Des Moines.
This story was originally published June 28, 2024 at 11:06 AM with the headline "17-year-old prom king who just graduated drowns, officials say. ‘Genuinely kind person’."
