Photo: Jared Brosnan/ WBZ NewsRadio
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and other community leaders held a ceremony in Mattapan Thursday in honor of the late Pastor Pearline B. James. Wu declared June 26 "Pastor Pearline James Day" and Malta Street was officially dedicated in James' honor.
Thursday was the second anniversary of James' death. She and her husband lived on Malta Street for more than 40 years where they raised their children and ran a childcare center out of their home.
"She was a woman, like so many Black women, actually, who not only cared for her own children, but for the children in her neighborhood and whose love for community extended beyond the walls of her home," Boston City Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune said.
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Born in 1946, James emigrated to Boston from Jamaica in 1971. She was a trained dietician who served as a minister at Full Life Gospel Center in Boston.
"She said 'I'm staying right here. This is where God planted me,'" James' daughter, Denella James Clark, said at the ceremony on her mother's home street. "And it's just such a blessing that the mayor and the city of Boston would honor her in this way."
Boston City Councilor Enrique Pepén and local church leaders were also among the attendees at Thursday's ceremony.
WBZ NewsRadio's Jared Brosnan (@jaredbrosnanwbz) reports.