Lorraine Cherry dedicated the last several years of her life to protecting green space in her neighborhood.
Her name will now be forever linked to the local park she loved.
The Houston City Council voted unanimously last week to rename West 11th Street Park, a 20-acre city park with wooded trails in the Timbergrove and Lazybrook community, as Lorraine Cherry Nature Preserve. Local officials said Cherry was instrumental in helping to raise the funds that allowed the city to purchase the property from Houston ISD in 2007, and she served as president of the Friends of West 11th Street Park since founding the group in 2005 until her death in 2017.
"The parks department is pleased to honor the memory of this outstanding Houstonian with the renaming of this park," Kenneth Allen, the interim director of the Houston Parks and Recreation Department, said in a news release from Friends of West 11th Street Park. "When citizens like Dr. Cherry are invested in making their neighborhoods better, they do the work that needs to be done to make it happen. That's what Dr. Cherry did with this park."
Cherry, who died at age 70, was a California native and University of California, Berkeley, graduate who moved to Houston in 1980 and later founded her own research and consulting service for biomedical professionals, according to her obituary. She served as the environmental affairs chairperson for the Timbergrove Manor Civic Club for more than 10 years, according to Friends of West 11th Street Park, and also was an active member of Super Neighborhood Council 14.
Starting in 1998, Cherry led a group of volunteers that coordinated with community leaders, government officials and the Houston Parks Board to help raise the money to purchase the 11th Street park. In the aftermath of her death, nearly 800 community members signed a petition asking the city to rename the park in her honor.
"It was truly a grassroots effort," said Robert Delgado, a board member for Friends of West 11th Street Park.
Houston City Council member Abbie Kamin, who represents the Timbergrove area as part of District C, thanked neighborhood residents for pushing for the name change when she spoke about it during the June 9 council meeting.
"This is a beautiful way to preserve her memory and her dedication to improving green space in the City of Houston," Kamin said.
https://www.theleadernews.com/community/city-to-rename-park-after-late-local-resident/article_a92efe72-cef0-11eb-a9ef-c35be36d254c.html?fbclid=IwAR0qpIAXYqtFUjEIGD_Vb9pTsIqAYq4BhvXaOEMwRrCTzbvFK5ch1XHYB0Q
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