COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) -- Columbus Council said farewell to longtime Councilor Mimi Woodson on Tuesday.
She did not seek re-election and will leave the council on Dec. 31. This was her final meeting.
Woodson has represented District 7. It is an area that runs the river from Fort Benning to just south of Bibb City. It has great wealth, a thriving downtown, and abject poverty. And as its representative, she has walked a fine line.
It was 28 years ago when Mimi Woodson was elected to City Council out of Oakland Park. Nothing about her said city councilor in Columbus, Ga.
She was born in Puerto Rico, raised in New York City, Chicago, and Milwaukee.
She had only lived here two years
She was just out of the Army. And she owned a candy store on the south side.
But she made her way into the halls of power in true Mimi Woodson fashion.
And her colleague Gary Allen, the only one who has been on council longer, remembered her with a quote from author Hunter S. Thompson.
“Last night, I was thinking about Mimi's service and this quote came to mine," Allen said. "'Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty, well-preserved body. But rather to slide in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, ‘Wow, what a ride.’”
Woodson acknowledged it was quite the ride.
'The ride has not been easy, but it has been a wonderful, amazing ride," Woodson said. "And when you believe in God and you believe in yourself. Anything’s possible. And I am living testimony of that.”
Woodson was the first Hispanic official elected to office in Georgia. And she told the story of one man, Hispanic, who tried to talk her out of running after city leaders Red McDaniel, A.J. McClung and Judge John Allen had approached her about the office.
“When I won, it was such a good feeling and I know I shouldn’t say this but it was such a good feeling to go back to that person and say, ‘Here’s a nobody. Here’s a Latina. Here’s a woman. And look at me now.”
She saved her most powerful words for her colleague and friend, Pops Barnes. For 12 years, Woodson cared for her elderly mother who had Alzheimer’s.
“I am a very private person," Woodson said. "I don’t know how to ask for help. Sometimes I think I am Superwoman, when I am not. And I can remember very clearly when the love of my life, my best friend, my mom was going downhill with Alzheimer’s. I didn’t have to go to Pops Barnes. He saw it. He saw my pain, He saw my struggle. And he knew I would not reach out to him. But yet, Pops reached out to me.”
Thursday night at the Trade Center, the city will honor Woodson and her service with a reception.
Beginning Jan. 1, Joanne Cogle will be the new District 7 councilor.
0 Comments