Montreal’s Executive Committee gave the official greenlight on Wednesday to renaming a park in Little Burgundy after one of the city’s most beloved musical icons.
Daisy Sweeney, who mentored piano greats Oscar Peteson and Oliver Jones, will have Charlevoix-Rufus-Rockhead Park renamed in her honour.
The city will also rename part of nearby Levis St. after Sweeney.
Sweeney died in August, 2017 at the age of 97. Along with teaching two of Montreal’s most famous musicians, she taught numerous others how to play piano at a time when the black community was not always welcome in the music world.
In September, members of Sweeney’s family told CTV News of the plan to rename the park but the passing of the resolution makes it official.
The family said they were presented with three options and opted for the park because of its sentimental meaning.
The city initially promised to rename a street after Sweeney following her passing during the administration of then-mayor Denis Coderre, but those plans changed after Mayor Valerie Plante was voted into office.
Plante initially decided to name a park on the corner of Guy and Paxton after Sweeney, but the family pressed for something closer to the heart of the neighbourhood in which she spent most of her life.
