By Mike Kinney
The renaming of a Richmond park after the late Floria Evans came closer to reality Tuesday after the proposal received unanimous support from the City Council.
The next step in renaming Virginia Playlot at S.18th and Virginia Street to Floria Evans Park will be a public hearing in Council Chambers on Oct. 15 to ensure the whole community can weigh in on it.
Evans, who died in June at 105 years old, missing her 106th birthday by just 40 days, was described as a “neighborhood hero” who lived there for 65 years. Councilmember Doria Robinson, who authored the resolution to rename the park, said Evans “held the neighborhood together for decades.”
“It is important to remember what she gave to make our community there so dynamic,” Robinson said.
Family and friends attended Tuesday’s City Council hearing to express why they believe Evans deserves recognition.
One of her sons, Luther Evans, said just being at City Council on Tuesday to recognize his mother “is very special to our family.”
Her eldest son Charles Evans, owner of CJ’s Fish and BBQ at 24th Street and Macdonald Avenue, said his mother “well deserves it.”
“She was a mom to a lot of people and children in the neighborhood throughout her time being here on Earth,” he said, adding, “She fed a lot of people.”
Pam Saucer of the nonprofit Men and Women of Valor was a life-time family friend of Evans. She lived two blocks from the Evans family when she was growing up.
“Mother Evans was a beautiful person, she was a woman of God, and she helped raise many of us here in the community,” Saucer said.
Community activist Antwon Cloird, a neighbor and close family friends for four decades, said Evans represented a “generational legacy” in Richmond.
“People like Mother Evans, Fred Jackson, Tommy Bradford, Joe Fisher and Lily Mae Jones taught the community good work ethics and loved people in our community,” Cloird said. “They all had a spiritual commitment to God and community. And Mother Evans was in that spiritual relationship with God and community. She was an outstanding example of being on the frontlines of helping people to become prosperous in love and peace. She truly created a legacy that has stood the test of time.”
