{"id":9675,"date":"2023-09-21T22:59:25","date_gmt":"2023-09-21T22:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=9675"},"modified":"2023-09-21T22:59:25","modified_gmt":"2023-09-21T22:59:25","slug":"billie-johnson-way-a-first-for-toledo-a-street-named-after-a-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/21\/billie-johnson-way-a-first-for-toledo-a-street-named-after-a-woman\/","title":{"rendered":"Billie Johnson Way: A First for Toledo, a Street Named After a Woman"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Truth Staff<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIf anyone \u2013 man or woman \u2013 deserves to have a street named in her honor, it is Billie Johnson,\u201d noted Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz, speaking at just such a street naming on Friday, September 15. The former Garden Lake Boulevard, which leads into the senior center at the Area Office on Aging, was renamed Billie Johnson Way for the woman who retired this summer after serving for 46 years as CEO of the agency.<\/p>\n

Dozens of family members, friends, elected officials, agency staff and board members and community leaders joined the mayor and Johnson for the event, the only city street to be named after a woman.<\/p>\n

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Billie Johnson speaking<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Johnson\u2019s recent retirement has led to numerous acknowledgements and honors this year for the Area Office on Aging leader who began her tenure in an office of four employees. That office has grown to include a staff of 185 along with several thousand volunteers now serving more than 40,000 senior citizens in northwest Ohio.<\/p>\n

Kapszukiewicz noted that numerous streets in Toledo are named after presidents or former mayors, all males, but this is a first. \u201cWe\u2019re naming a street after a woman who was a trailblazer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s words were echoed by Justin Moor, interim president of Area Office on Aging, who has been part of the staff for more than 20 years. \u201cThis is the gateway to the campus that she\u2019s developed over the last several decades \u2026 it\u2019s been my goal to do things the Billie Johnson way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson herself was, as she always is, humble as she received the honor. \u201cThis is not Billie Johnson day; this is a day for the city of Toledo, the county of Lucas, northwestern Ohio and for all the women whose shoulders I have stood on.\u201d<\/p>\n

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