December 11th, 2024

Gloria Fox remembered at service in Roxbury

Former state Rep. Gloria Fox’s days began in the early hours of the morning and stretched late into the evening, according to the recollections of family members, former colleagues and constituents who packed into the Charles Street AME Church Tuesday, December 10 for a memorial service. Through her decades-long career of public and community service, Fox’s love for her community remained constant, speakers said. “Gloria woke up in the morning and I suspect the first thing she did was to pray, ‘Let me find someone to help today,’” former state Rep. Rushing told the audience. But according to Fox’s grandson Dallas Fox, the former legislator’s mornings actually began with the noise of an answering machine. “She started every morning listening to her voice mail, writing notes and then replying to her messages,” he said. “She did this every single day of the week — every single day of the year — because she was devoted to service and her community. Everybody meant something to her.”

Fox passed away Nov. 12. She began her career in community service as an organizer at the Whittier Street public housing development and was instrumental in the fight to prevent the planned extension of Interstate 95 through Lower Roxbury and other neighborhoods in the south of Boston. She later worked for the anti-poverty agency Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD), becoming head of its Roxbury Area Planning Action Council. She was first elected to office in 1986, serving 30 years in the House. During her time in office, she gained a reputation as a fierce advocate for the Greater Roxbury community as well as for constituencies who often lacked access to power in the State House — among them foster children, human service providers and recipients and public housing residents. During her memorial service, her former colleagues remembered her for her commitment to helping the underserved. “I learned from her the importance of helping young Black boys,” said former Essex County Sheriff Frank Cousins, who served in the House with Fox during the 1990s. Cousins, who noted that 44% of the people incarcerated in Essex County’s jails were people of color, said Fox was laser-focused on inmates’ wellbeing. “Gloria consistently advocated for those young men who were incarcerated,” he said. The pews at the Charles Street AME were filled with legislators with whom Fox served as a member of the Massachusetts Black and Latino Caucus, former colleagues from ABCD, community activists, elected officials, clergy, her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Rushing urged those gathered to look on Fox’s life and career in public service as a call to action. “We will miss her,” he said. “But the way we have to miss her is to remember how she did her work.”

Gloria Fox