MIAMI — Shirley Gibson, the initially mayor for the metropolis of Miami Gardens and who played an instrumental position in incorporating the town 20 years in the past, has died, a city formal reported Monday night time. She was 79.
Current Mayor Rodney Harris confirmed Gibson’s passing to CBS News Miami. The trigger of loss of life was not quickly disclosed.
“We shed just one of our previous mayors. Our really initially Mayor,” he reported. “The full city’s heartfelt sympathies go out to her family.”
The mayor stated flags in Miami Gardens will be at half-staff members on Tuesday in honor of Gibson, a previous law enforcement officers for the Miami-Dade Police Division ahead of she entered politics.
Miami Gardens was founded in 2003 right after activist inhabitants banned alongside one another, saying they have been receiving brief shrift from the county. The metropolis is dwelling to Jazz in the Gardens, which provides nationally regarded entertainers to the city and was began at the behest of Gibson.
“She was a single of the genuine pioneers of our metropolis,” Harris said. “Her loss will be felt for a long time.”
Political activists banded collectively adhering to the development of what is now Really hard Rock Stadium, according to a printed report.
The evaluate went right before voters in 1995 but was voted down in advance of citizens regrouped and set the matter on the ballot yet again seven years later.
“It took us yrs to come to be a city,” Gibson said to the Miami New Instances in August. “We experimented with in 1995, and it failed, and it took us seven many years to come back.”
Gibson served as mayor for the fledgling metropolis prior to leaving workplace since of term boundaries.
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