This past week, the Kankakee City Council honored three people with street designations within the city’s 1st Ward.
Sometimes, it seems, street designations can be handed out in a rather casual manner, but there could be no argument when it came to these honorees.
The trio honored were the late James “Bubba” Cox, a former Kankakee 1st Ward alderman; JoAnn Ford-Box, also a former 1st Ward alderwoman; and Patricia Polk, a former 1st Ward Kankakee alderwoman, a Kankakee County Board member and one of the first minorities to serve on the Miss America Board of Directors.
The honorary street designation for Cox is the 400 block of North Indiana Avenue. Ford-Box Way will be the 200 block of North Chicago Avenue. Patricia Polk Lane will be the 300 block of North Chicago Avenue.
Anyone who followed the political career of Bubba Cox, from 1999 to 2015, would never forget his passion and dedication to the city, but in particular to the 1st Ward, one of the most impoverished areas of the city.
The 1953 graduate of Kankakee High School, Cox served in the U.S. Air Force and then came home and worked at the Quaker Oats plant for 28 years before retiring in 1991.
A longtime coach for the Kankakee Jaycees Little League, he also served as a mentor to many within the city’s northside neighborhoods.
JoAnn Ford-Box, who served on the council from 1985 to 2001, was one of my favorite council members during my early years of covering the council under then-Mayor Donald Green.
Ford-Box has called Kankakee home for 53 years.
Polk, a council member from 1991-95 and a current 19th District Kankakee County Board member, may be best known as a volunteer consultant to several nonprofit organizations and as president of the Martin Luther King Jr. Foundation.
Polk is heavily involved in the Miss America and Miss Illinois programs and was named to the Miss Illinois Hall of Fame.
These three were great representatives for the portion of the city they served.
While they certainly had different ways to represent the citizens and the manner in which they operated within the council framework, each was successful.
Cox passed away in December 2020, and I for one, certainly miss his frequent stops at The Journal to discuss city issues or his latest concerns. God bless this trio.
The Daily Journal’s Lee Provost writes about local business rumors, comings and goings and other notes of interest. Anyone with information to share should contact Provost at lprovost@daily-journal.com or 815-937-3364.
