Investigator Stephen Lully with the Spartanburg County Coroner's Office said Waylon Luke Kitchens died Saturday about 10 p.m. at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center.

An autopsy Sunday showed the death was an accident caused by irreversible brain damage due to a lack of oxygen from drowning, Lully said.

Kim Godfrey said Waylon, named for country music superstar Waylon Jennings, was the youngest of her four sons, and he always asked before going outside to play.

"He would ask to go out and get on the trampoline. I don't see him going outside by himself," she said.

At the party, however, she thinks he slipped from the group through a sliding glass door and re-entered the pool about 4:30 p.m.

The mother and son were among about 20 children and adults attending a birthday party for a relative at the relative's house near Duncan.

Godfrey said Waylon and others had had been swimming with adult supervision before they went inside for cake and ice cream.

She said he had floats on his arms while he was in the water.

"Waylon was a big eater. He had his cake and ice cream and wanted more cake. I told him to wait, and if there were seconds, he could have more. While he ate another piece of cake, I was getting the wet towels and things together, because it was time to go," she said.

Godfrey said Waylon wanted to sit with the other children. When she called for her other sons, ages, 13, 10 and 9, she also called him, saying it was time to leave.

"I hollered, and he didn't answer. I went outside, looking. Then I walked to the pool, and I saw him. He was on the bottom," she said.

Sharing books was one of the many good times she recalled while looking back on her son's short life.

"He loved books. I had bought him about 25 at a big community yard sale in Greer on Friday. He wanted me to read and act out the parts. He would tell you which animal to be -- you couldn't choose," she said.

Godfrey said that Waylon looked up to his older brothers. "He would wait at the door for them to get off the school bus. And he'd wave to them as they left to get on the church bus," she said.

Waylon liked to go to church, also.

"He would hear other people say, 'amen,' and he would holler out a big 'amen,' too," she recalled.

Godfrey said her youngest son was a blessing to her and his father, Reggie Kitchens, who is president of Mid-City Shriners.

Donations may be made to the Shriner's Hospital for Children in his memory, the family said Sunday night.

"He was just a little boy -- all boy. And he was loved by everybody. He never gave me a problem. He didn't even go through the 'terrible 2s' like most kids," Godfrey said.

Waylon's grandfather, William Godfrey, said he would often visit with Waylon.

"His mother would tell him I was coming. He'd be standing in the door waving when I drove up," William Godfrey said.

Waylon was the youngest of William Godfrey's seven grandchildren.

"He'd drag out his toys and show me a new one. He loved plastic animals and wrestling men. Knew them by name," he said.

Family members described Waylon as a loving child.

"He was a loving little boy. I loved that little ol' boy. He loved me, too," William Godfrey said