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October 7, 2004
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October 7, 2004 |
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Limestone Street dedicated after Jim McKee
The Village government and many Yellow Springs residents honored Jim McKee during a ceremony dedicating Limestone Street as James A. McKee Way on Saturday, calling the late former police chief a humanitarian, mentor and friend. “No one deserved having a street named after him better than Deacon McKee,” said the Rev. James A. Nooks, pastor of First Baptist Church, where McKee was a member of the congregation. More than 200 people attended the ceremony, which was held in Bill Duncan Park. Among the crowd were many members of the McKee family, employees of the Village and the Yellow Springs Police Department, Village Council members and members of the Yellow Springs Men’s Group, which McKee founded in 1994 and which first suggested that Council name Limestone Street after McKee earlier this year. Mayor David Foubert declared Oct. 2 James A. McKee Day in Yellow Springs. In addition to citing McKee’s police work, Foubert highlighted the former police chief’s community service. McKee was an “outstanding community leader, a listener, a dreamer, a quiet and humble man who walked tall and exemplified the values of openness, tolerance and respect for the rights of others,” Foubert said in a proclamation honoring McKee. McKee, who served as police chief in Yellow Springs for 34 years until he retired in 1993, lived on Limestone Street. He died at the age of 73 on Jan. 18, 2003. Naomi McKee, who was married to Jim McKee for 55 years, Council president Tony Arnett, Village Manager Rob Hillard, current police chief, Carl Bush, and Foubert officially dedicated McKee Way during a ribbon cutting ceremony. A number of the people who spoke during the ceremony pledged to keep McKee’s legacy alive by educating future generations about who McKee was and the good things he did for Yellow Springs. “I will promise that I will make sure those in the future know what the name means,” Arnett said of McKee Way. Bruce Rickenbach, who as Village manager in the 1970s worked with McKee, praised McKee’s “countless and often unknown contributions to collective village life” during his tenure as police chief, and later as the founder of the Men’s Group. “Jim never met a stranger, and never took the measure of anyone by some usual token — money, status or position. And most certainly not race,” said Rickenbach, the executive vice president of the Men’s Group. “It was a person’s humanity, intellect and behavior that mattered to Jim.” Family friend Paul Richardson called McKee the “big brother I never had.” McKee led an “extraordinary life that at one time or another touched us all,” Richardson said. One of McKee’s daughters, Karen McKee, said that the ceremony was a time not only to celebrate James A. McKee Way but also to celebrate Yellow Springs, a community, she said, that her father loved as a “citizen, husband, friend and humanitarian.” “He loved people and he loved this community,” she said. Nooks said that McKee was “influential in helping us at First Baptist.” “We miss him, we miss his guidance, we miss his strength,” Nooks said. In 1957, McKee joined the police force when he was hired as a police officer. At the time, he was one of three officers on the force, including the chief. Two years later, he was named chief of police, a position he held for 34 years, until he retired in March 1993. In between, McKee led a long and distinguished career. He was the first black to hold the position of police chief in the United States in a predominantly white community. He instituted a philosophy of community policing before the term became in vogue in departments around the country. Within the next month, the Village will post blue street signs bearing McKee’s name on Limestone, Hillard said. The name of Limestone Street has not officially changed. Instead, McKee Way is a memorial designation. |
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