Among the purple hues at St. John’s United Methodist Church in midtown is a light.
“A force on city council, but a force in our hearts,” Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee said.
Ada Jean Edwards, a former city council member, passed away last week.
SEE ALSO: ‘Rest in power’: Former city council member Ada Edwards dead at 80
The community advocate and icon was 80 years old.
“She was fierce, she was courageous,” Vice Mayor Pro Tempore Martha Castex-Tatum said.
“She was truly a lioness,” Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said.
A city council member of six years and a lifelong activist.
“She stood up for those people who didn’t have influence,” Finner said.
Edwards fought for civil rights, taking on the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and police brutality. She even advocated against the South African apartheid.
“In 1979 when she came, the eagle landed,” Jackson Lee said. “She changed the landscape of this city.”
She was a mother to her five children, 11 grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren, all while being a mentor to the next generation.
“My mother loved the city of Houston,” her child Todd Edwards said.
“We’ll never forget the impact she made on the city of Houston,” Castex-Tatum said.
During the service, Mayor Sylvester Turner presented a proclamation naming March 31, Ada Jean Edwards day.