Dozens of people gathered on the sidewalk at the corner of Maccombs Road and W. Mount Eden Avenue on Tuesday to celebrate local religious leader Josephine Gooding’s legacy with a street co-naming ceremony.
Now co-named Evangelist Josephine Gooding Place, the street along W. Mount Eden Avenue honors the life of the late leader.
Her son, Jay Gooding, also a pastor, told the crowd during the co-naming event that he appreciates the city for putting up the street sign that honors his mother’s legacy.
“I often say that legacy is not something that you leave for someone, but rather what’s been imparted in something,” he said. “And mother has imparted something in each one of us and today as we unveil this sign, I believe each one of us out to have a little Evangelist Josephine Gooding in us.”
According to her biography, Gooding was born in Georgia but moved to Brooklyn as a child to live with an uncle and aunt after her mother died.
Years later, while working a shift at Nedick’s Restaurant on Easter Sunday in 1952, she met her future husband Ceacer, whom she said she’d date if he came to church with her. They married eight months later, had four kids and were together for 61 years until his death in 2014. Her husband was also honored during Tuesday’s ceremony.
Gooding received her Evangelist License when she was 16 years old and was a faith member of multiple parishes in the city throughout her life — including leadership roles on missionary boards and church committees, as well as a co-pastor with her husband. Gooding also received her degree in early childhood education from the College of New Rochelle and worked as a teacher at P.S. 291 in the Bronx until she retired in 1997.
In 2019, Gooding moved from the city to Boston to be with one of her daughters and her daughter’s family, where she spent the last four years of her life. She died on July 1, 2023, leaving behind four children, 16 grandchildren, and 25 great-grandchildren.
Jay Gooding Jr., a grandson of the late Evangelist, spoke at the ceremony about what he hopes people will think when they walk along the block with a new name.
“I declare and decree that when people walk up and down this street, their minds will begin to change into doing what’s right,” he said. “As people walk up and down this street, thought patterns of negativity will change into you to do what’s right, for this will be a street of power, this shall be a street of love …”
Other local leaders, including Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson and Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark, attended the event and reveled in Gooding’s legacy.
“I knew Mother Gooding and usually sat next to her when I attended service. I was able to see God working in her,” Gibson said. “We don’t name streets after just anyone.”
Paul Frangipane contributed to this report.
Reach Camille Botello at cbotello@schnepsmedia.com. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
