Clayton Moore Is a Real-Life Hero

* Congratulations to Frank Manning, who wrote such a wonderful article (Sept. 15) on the Lone Ranger. Clayton Moore is indeed a hero, not only internationally, but to our local community as well.

I met him in the late 1970s when he dramatically rescued my daughter’s friends, the Reifler twins. The girls were only 7 years old, but had decided that they were capable of handling a boat. Without anyone’s knowledge the two had untied their rubber raft from its mooring and launched it on Calabasas Lake. The fun turned to panic when they became becalmed and stranded. They called out repeatedly for help, and soon there was a man swimming strongly toward them who towed them back to shore. He rode away before he could be thanked.

I wrote for the local Enterprise newspaper at that time, and the mother of my daughter’s friends asked me to put out an article requesting that the mysterious stranger please identify himself so that they could express their appreciation. I subsequently heard the ever-familiar, husky tones of the Lone Ranger over the telephone introducing himself as the gentleman involved.

That was the beginning of our family’s friendship, and the continuation of our longtime respect and fondness for the hero that is the epitome of what is noble in our city of Calabasas, whose motto is appropriately “The Last of the Old West.”

KARYN FOLEY

Calabasas

Foley is the mayor of Calabasas.