Dionne Warwick looks up at the street sign bearing her name as it is unveiled. Legendary record producer Clive Davis is on the left and her sons are behind her.
Dionne Warwick will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday, a week after she was honored in her hometown with a street renaming in her honor.
“Dionne Warwick, a truly incomparable legend, has always been a source of pride for East Orange. Her extensive body of work as a musician and her legacy as a humanitarian is truly remarkable,” said Mayor Ted R. Green. “It is our honor to commemorate her enduring legacy with this street renaming right in the vibrant heart of our Arts District, where her influence will continue to inspire and uplift the next generation of talented artists each and every day.”
Warwick, who became a Kennedy Center Honoree and earned the Urban One Honors Lifetime Achievement Award during the past year, was feted at a ceremony outside City Hall on Friday, Oct. 11.
The ceremony included singing, dancing, speeches and the official unveiling of the sign on North Arlington Avenue at City Hall Plaza. Warwick smiled and sang along during the performances but kept her head down, looking shyly at her feet as speaker after speaker spoke of her talent, achievements and humanitarian efforts.
Green opened the event by calling for a moment of silence for Cissy Houston and John Amos, East Orange natives who have recently passed away, and he went on to say he had recently been asked how East Orange produced so many great people.
“I said it must be in the water,” Green said.
Melba Moore, a Tony award winning actress and singer who was nominated multiple times for Grammy awards, helped kick off the program by singing “Lift Every Voice” and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.”
East Orange is home of the Dionne Warwick Institute of Entrepreneurship and Economics. Warwick has been a staunch supporter of the school and education in general. School Principal Passion Moss-Hassan spoke to the crowd at City Hall about Warwick’s involvement with the school.
“It’s not often that someone can have a living legend involved,” said Moss-Hassan, referring to Warwick as “Momma D” and adding how much she enjoyed seeing Warwick “sliding through East Orange” wearing a sweatsuit, baseball hat and Ugg boots.
The Warwick Wailers Choir from the school performed a medley of Warwick songs, including “Walk on By” and “Do You Know the Way to San Jose.”
Clive Davis, who was president of Columbia Records in the 1960s and 70s and then founded Arista Records, was at the event and spoke about his time working with Warwick.
Davis is credited with signing artists including Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Aerosmith and Pink Floyd but he spoke about how he talked Warwick out of quitting the music business.
“She said to me ‘I’m really thinking about leaving the music industry. I haven’t had a hit in a while,” Davis said. “I signed her, and our first record was ‘I’ll Never Love This Way Again,’”
The song reached number five on the top 100 Billboard chart.
Davis also talked about Warwick’s charitable work, particularly with amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research that is one of the world’s leading nonprofit organizations dedicated to the support of AIDS research, HIV prevention, treatment education, and advocacy. Warwick was particularly important in the organization’s first two years of existence, he said.
“I’m so happy for you to receive this special recognition,” Davis said.
The East Orange Cicely L. Tyson School of the Performing and Fine Arts Dance Troupe performed to a medley of Warwick’s music. When they were done, Warwick hugged each member of the group.
Television personality Don Lemon attended the event and spoke before singing to Warwick, using lyrics from her own songs but changing some of the words to fit the occasion.
“What the world needs now, is a street named after Dionne Warwick,” he sang.
Vesta Goodwin Clark, executive director of St. James Social Services, spoke of Warwick’s involvement with the Zeta Phi Beta sorority.
“She is not only a legend for her music but for her humanitarian efforts,” Clark said.
When invited to speak, Warwick, who is 83, took to the podium and thanked those present.
“Normally I love to talk but I am at a loss for words today,” Warwick said. “I thank the mayor, the council and all my old buddies out there,” she said, looking at a collection of friends in the crowd outside City Hall.
Her sons both spoke with her older son, David, saying he was an adult before he realized who Dionne Warwick the legend was.
“I had no idea who Dionne was. She was just the one I was afraid to bring home bad grades to,” David Warwick said.
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