Mother Joyner at Saturday's event.
Newly unveiled street sign.
“We’re all related,” a voice in the crowd remarked Saturday in the moments before the corner of Newhall and Huntington Streets officially became “Mother Mary E. Atkinson Joyner Corner.”
The spirited crowd of 125 turned out on a crisp, sun-lit day to honor Joyner, the “well-respected church mother, community leader, and longtime gospel promoter,” as the official city citation described her.
Joyner was clad at the event in a black pillbox hat, a finely embroidered black coat, and dark sunglasses. She turned 100 in September.
“Her brother is here, her cousin, her daughter is here, her great grandchildren, her great-great grandchildren, her nieces, nephews, cousins, great nieces, great nephews, cousins,” noted ceremony emcee Sean Hardy, himself a second cousin of Mother Mary Etta, as she’s known. “You name it, we’re here.”
In December, the Board of Alders approved the unanimous recommendation of the board’s City Services & Environmental Policy Committee to designate the corner in her name.
Emcee Sean Hardy with Mother Mary Etta Atkinson.
Doreen Corbett.
“Not many people will know the things you did behind the scenes, but I know them and I know you have a heart of gold,” said Doreen Corbett, Joyner’s cousin, in her remarks.
“Feeding the community, clothing the community,” she said. “If someone was short on rent, if they couldn’t keep the lights on, the gas on, she’d get involved, even out of her own pocket.”
Mother Joyner, at right, with her cousin Paula Darden Turner.
Patricia Atkinson Reynolds.
“The only thing that’s missing is your broom,” her niece, Patricia Atkinson Reynolds, said, referring to Joyner famously sweeping the street and picking up trash to keep the neighborhood tidy.
“You brought up four children, and then you buried one, and you raised five more,” she went on, of Joyner raising five of her grandchildren when her daughter died in an automobile accident.
“You have always been there for us and we hope we have always been there for you.”
Standing near the back of the crowd, Jesse Hameen II, a jazz drummer who has performed with Ruth Brown, Etta James, and Bonnie Raitt and toured worldwide, said his father and Joyner’s mother were first cousins.
Mother Mary Etta, with her gravitational pull.
“I’ve known her my entire life,” said Hameen, a founding member of Jazz Haven who’s the jazz & rock studies coordinator at Neighborhood Music School. “She’s always been the kind of person that people gravitate to.”
He talked about the influence of her father, Bishop Austin Atkinson, a founding member of Pitts Chapel Unified Free Will Baptist Church in 1934 who served as pastor there from 1942 – 1974. (He has his own corner named for him, at Brewster Street and Dixwell Avenue, as does Joyner’s sister, Mattie Atkinson Darden, on the corner of Goffe and Sperry Streets.)
“Her father allowed her, allowed all his children to express themselves,” Hameen said. “Some people suppress their gift, but she knows she’s here to help people and she did, regardless of obstacles. She’s always shared her gift not just with her family, but with the neighborhood and the community, and I’ve been a beneficiary.”
Having come out of Pitts Chapel of the 1940s and 1950s, Hameen recalled the groups Joyner brought in as “a big inspiration.”
Those included Mahalia Jackson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, The Staples Sisters, and the Soul Stirrers, which featured the young Sam Cooke. “She also inspired and encouraged many of us young people to perform,” he said.
Rev. Dr. Boise Kimber of the New Haven Clergy Association recalled those gospel shows, and the welcoming spirit of the Atkinsons when he first arrived in New Haven.
“You and your family have been stellar citizens of this city,” he told her.
Cheryl Atkinson.
Cheryl Atkinson, Joyner’s niece, praised her resilience.
“You done survived this Covid, you done survived all this craziness going around, and you still here,” she said. “Cory Booker told that justice [Ketanji Brown], ‘God has got you,’ and we all know ‘God has got you,” she told Joyner.
A passing driver beeped a car horn.
By then, the ceremony was winding down. The focus shifted to the ladder leaning on the telephone pole.
“Is there anybody from the city here?” Hardy, the emcee, asked. “Anybody from public works?”
“She outlived them all,” someone called out.
“Or they all got fired,” someone else joked.
intrepid climber.
With that, a brave soul scaled the ladder.
Crowd in song
The sign unveiled, the crowd cheered. Then, led by Joyner’s niece, Bishop Willa Darden Moody, they broke out into an exuberant rendition of the gospel standard “We’ve Come This Far By Faith.”
“We’ve come this far by faith, leaning on the lord, trusting in his words,” they sang as the sign glistened in the morning sun. “He’s never failed me yet.”
Joyner joined in.
“I’m just highly honored,” she said, as most of the crowd headed over to Pitts Chapel for plates of food. “I always try to do what I can for people. I just do the best I can.”
