Vigil and Cruise for the homie Cheerio's

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By DOUG IRVING / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

SANTA ANA -- Dozens of people said "goodbye" Sunday to a Santa Ana original, a man who made it his mission to keep people safe by employing little more than a pair of flashlights and a warning: "Lights! Lights!"

His name was Kenneth Pierre, but to generations of people in Santa Ana, he was "Cheerios." They'd see him on busy street corners or outside football games with his flashlights, reminding drivers to turn their headlights on.
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Everyone knew him. When he died at 83 late last month, a Facebook tribute page quickly filled with kind words and good memories. About 65 people came to his vigil -- young and old, many with flashlights.

"He kept everybody safe. Yeah, everybody loved him," said Sal Godoy, 26. "He was a legend inside Santa Ana."

The story that passed from generation to generation about Cheerios was that a car with its headlights out had hit and killed his wife and child; that was what sent him out with his flashlights. The reality was that he never married and never had children.

"I saw too many accidents in this city, too many," he once said. "People forget to turn on their lights; they forget if you don't tell them to."

He also always knew where the parties were, where people were cruising -- and sometimes, he'd hop in a car and come along. A line of sleek, big-finned Chevrolets and other classic cars was parked across from the vigil Sunday, waiting for a sundown cruise in his honor.

The fire department came, too, parking a truck at the vigil with an American flag hoisted high on its ladder-- an honor typically reserved for firefighters or those close to the department. Pierre used to stop by the fire station -- "How's it going, guys?" -- and engineer Robert Lory described him as "kind of like a family member to everyone."

Pierre's eyesight had gotten weak in recent months, so he had stopped going out with his flashlights much. He had been in failing health and was diagnosed with double pneumonia. He was 83 when he died late last month.

"Si no conoces a Cheerios, no conoces a Santa Ana," Fernando Vasquez, 41, said at the vigil as people nodded in agreement. If you don't know Cheerios, you don't know Santa Ana.