Where LI roads and namesakes intersect

'Who was that guy?" asks Marla Gagnum, a longtime East Hampton resident who lives a stone's throw from Stephen Hands Path, a tree-lined road that links Route 27 to points north and east.

"I use that road all the time, and I've always wondered who he was, when and where he lived and why he had a road named for him."

Gagnum is likely not alone; the object of her curiosity is just one of many people who have been honored with byways on Long Island because they once made some contribution to the life of their communities. As time passes, however, personal biographies tend to become lost in history.

Here are a few thoroughfares and their namesakes -- some roads well-traveled, some more obscure, some tinged with time's layers of fact, folklore or legend.

Stephen Hands Path, EAST HAMPTON

Gagnum and her neighbors are trekking to trendy destinations in the Hamptons along one of the town's oldest roads. Stephen Hand (1635-1693) was a member of a family that founded East Hampton and was one of the East End's most prolific dynasties, whose descendants helped to populate the area. He fathered eight children and lived on the west side of Georgica Creek, now one of the most upscale areas in the Hamptons.

According to early documents, he was a prosperous landowner and, in the late 1600s, a town constable. In 1683 he was named one of a committee empowered to join Southampton and Southold in selecting a representative for the first Colonial Assembly.

Hand, for whom the road was named on Nov. 3, 1665, granted the town the right to put a 12-foot-wide highway through woodland he owned, stipulating, in the parlance of its time, that it was to be "only to drive cartes and oxen in yoak & to ride and lead horses through, not to drive cattle through out of yoaks." While today Stephen Hands Path remains a leafy, winding road, there's nary an ox cart in sight.

Guy Lombardo Avenue, FREEPORT

"Without Guy Lombardo they'd have to cancel New Year's Eve," quipped a Times Square security guard as the ball dropped on a freezing midnight in 2009 and the familiar strains of "Auld Lang Syne" warmed the confetti-strewn revelers. Although the famous bandleader died at age 75 in 1977, his signature song remains a New Year's Eve staple.

Lombardo, a Canadian who was also a naturalized U.S. citizen, had a career that spanned 53 years. He and his dance band, The Royal Canadians, were internationally known, playing what their admirers agreed was "the sweetest music this side of heaven."

In 1940 Lombardo and his wife, Lilliebell, built a luxurious modern house on South Grove Street, now renamed Guy Lombardo Avenue. The house backed onto Woodcleft Canal, where Lombardo moored his cruiser, Tempo, in a slip that was built for it under the building. Proximity to the water was a must with Lombardo, who was also famous for his speedboat racing. In the late 1940s he was the reigning U.S. national champion, winning trophies in his record-breaking hydroplane, Tempo VI.

"I knew he had race boats and I had race cars, so I knocked on his door and he invited me in for coffee and showed me around, and we met many times after that," said Marty Himes, 72, of Bay Shore.

Although Guy Lombardo's alternate moniker was "Mr. New Year's Eve," here on Long Island he was often referred to as "Mr. Freeport," a nod toward his volunteer service at village events, his productions of programs at the Jones Beach Theater and for the tourism his celebrity status attracted to the area.

"He was a great guy," Himes said.

Earle Ovington Boulevard, UNIONDALE

Earle Ovington was the pioneering aviator who piloted the first airmail flight in the United States, making a delivery that entailed dropping the mail pouch from a plane in flight; he was affectionately dubbed "Birdman" by his peers. In 1911 at age 32, he carried a sack of mail from Garden City to Mineola, a journey of about six minutes notable for its outcome and Ovington's daring. He was piloting a plane with a cockpit so small he had to balance the sack of mail on his knees while steering with his feet. Flying at an alarmingly low 500 feet, he also had to find the designated drop site, hoist the heavy sack over the side and drop it at the precise moment to hit the target. His aim was dead-on, but the sack burst on impact and hundreds of pieces of mail were tossed to the wind, giving workers the chore of chasing after every piece.

When Ovington died in 1936 at age 56 after a long illness, he had packed his short life with multiple careers as an aeronautical engineer, an inventor and an assistant to Thomas Edison. In accordance with his wishes, he was cremated, and his ashes were scattered at sea. Earle Ovington Boulevard was added to the Nassau County road system in 1979 along with other interior roads in Mitchel Field. It crosses Hempstead Turnpike near the Nassau Coliseum.

(John) Scott's Cove Lane, EAST SETAUKET

Some historians rate Englishman John Scott (1632-1704) as a colorful, if rather shady, character; others credit him with brokering cordial relationships with Indian sachems on vast tracts of eastern Long Island at a time when the English and Dutch were at odds over settling the New World. Most agree that Scott purchased land from his Indian friends and, as he was well-known in political circles, was able to con the community of Setauket into accepting his claim that the deeds he held were properly authorized by English royalty. Scott, an audacious interloper, renamed the area "Ashford" in memory of his ancestral home in Kent, England, and built a mansion called Scott's Hall, a precursor to proclaiming himself president of Long Island. He was eventually arrested on suspicion of dubious dealings and was sentenced to prison, but he soon escaped overseas, where he was said to have continued his scheming lifestyle.

His legacy, Scott's Cove Lane near Long Island Sound, is in the Dyer's Neck Historic District with its idyllic vistas and wildlife sanctuary.