Long Island history is written on these street signs

You can read about Long Island’s past in books and on the internet, but recent history is being written on street signs — although it may not show up on maps.

Ceremonial street namings, which typically don’t display on GPS, are carried out to honor Long Islanders who devoted themselves to community. They include educators and police, firefighters and clergy, astronauts and musicians — and those who have simply lifted up their neighbors.

“If an everyday citizen has done something remarkable for the greater community, I think they should be rewarded in a public way,” said Georgette Grier-Key of Bellport, president of the Museum Association of New York and president emeritus of the Long Island Historical Society. “Sometimes people gave their life in service or they made an everlasting imprint on people’s lives.”

Those honored range from civil rights activist Hazel Dukes in Roslyn Heights to journalist Marie Colvin in Oyster Bay to astronaut Mike Massimino in Franklin Square to Tuskegee Airman William M. Wheeler in Uniondale.

Police are honored, with West End Avenue and Flower Hill Drive in Shirley named in 2019 for NYPD Sgt. Paul Michael Ferrara, who in 2014 died from cancer related to work at Ground Zero.

“Our street in our neighborhood is named after him, and there’s another street in the city named after him,” said his widow, Manorville resident Kerrie Ferrara. A building at the Long Island Game Farm in Manorville, a place that he loved, is also named in his honor, she said.

Late rappers are also on this metaphorical map. Biz Markie (Marcel Theo Hall) is honored with Biz Markie Way in Patchogue while Daniel “MF DOOM” Dumille is memorialized with a section of East Hudson Street in Long Beach.

The Piano Man himself, Billy (William Martin) Joel, was honored with Billy Joel Way, a section of Audrey Avenue in Oyster Bay near the iconic musician’s motorcycle museum, 20th Century Cycles.

“He’s proud of his Long Island heritage,” said Billy Joel fan Stephanie Nelkens, 58, of Plainview, a math tutor. “I think it’s a lovely gesture for someone who has given back.”

Although ceremonial commemorations often are called “street renamings,” co-namings or designations may be more accurate. “The address will be the same,” said Patricia Perez, village clerk for Hempstead Village.

There are no Islandwide estimates of the number of ceremonial street names, but Islip Town alone dedicated four streets so far this year and 14 since 2020, according to the town.

Grier-Key said memorials in signs, not just stone, can be meaningful ways to keep legacies alive if people learn about and remember those who are honored.

Co-namings create new memories and moments, turning otherwise ordinary places into something special. The significance for people who knew the honoree, however, goes even deeper. For those, the renaming is a lasting memorial and a reminder that their loved one is still here in spirit, and their impact is still felt.

“Having that sign facing Freeport High School means everything,” said Diane Mary Caruso, whose late husband, longtime school administrator Ernest J. Kight Jr., was honored with a street renaming. “It’s what he stood for, doing the best for the community. It was his life’s work.”

Rather than examining them on their own, a larger look can tell a story of how and why we honor them this way.

Civil rights icon Hazel Dukes

When Hazel Dukes goes to Assembly of Prayer Baptist Church in Roslyn Heights, she sees not just familiar faces, but the street sign bearing her name.

While many people aren’t honored until after they pass away, Dukes, 92, a civil rights activist, had the privilege of witnessing a street co-named for her in March 2023. That’s when Edwards Street, near the Roslyn Gardens apartment complex where she once lived, also became “Dr. Hazel Dukes Way.”

“She’s one of the most phenomenal, generational, bold civil rights leaders to grace our area,” Grier-Key said. “She’s an icon. She’s still on the battlefield.”

As a testament to her far-reaching impact, more than 250 people attended the renaming, including state Attorney General Letitia James, former Gov. David Paterson and state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

Born in Montgomery, Alabama, Dukes and her family moved to New York where she held many positions, rising to NAACP national president while advocating for equal rights and against housing discrimination.

“I integrated that (Roslyn Gardens) complex,” said Dukes, who in the late 1950s successfully challenged the complex’s landlords after they refused to rent her an apartment. “While they were denying Blacks entry, I, as a civil rights activist, would not take that knowing the rights and laws of the state.”

Ground Zero first-responder Steven E. Brandow

Steven E. Brandow was a police officer whose desire to help others was hardwired into his personality, those who knew him said.

“My husband was the kind of person who helped anybody with anything they needed, especially neighbors,” said Gladys Brandow, his widow. “He would shovel our neighbor’s snow. After hurricane Sandy, he spearheaded bringing gas from National Grid on the block,” which she said it previously did not have.

Brandow died from COVID-19 in February 2021 at age 56. A crowd gathered at the corner of Fulton and West Henrietta avenues in Oceanside when the latter was rededicated Steven E. Brandow Avenue in August of that year.

“It was bittersweet for me,” said his widow, who still lives on the street and sees the sign daily. “My son used to take the bus at that corner to go to school. He saw his father’s name every morning.”

Brandow grew up in Rosedale, Queens, moving to Long Beach in the early 2000s, where he met his wife in 2002. They married in 2004, welcomed their son Steven Jr. in 2006 and moved to Oceanside in 2008.

He served as an NYPD officer for about 20 years, spending a month helping after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Gladys Brandow believes exposure to toxins at Ground Zero may have been a factor in his death.

“You put your life on the line when you’re a police officer,” she said. “I have pictures of him. You could see the rubble. He was down there.”

Gladys Brandow said she initiated the street naming campaign, but was joined by others. “I don’t know what possessed me at the time,” she said. “I was in mourning. I’m still in mourning. I felt like I had to memorialize him somehow on the block.”

Freeport schools leader Ernest J. Kight Jr.

Diane Mary Caruso can recall many locations important in her life, but she has a physical reminder of her late husband in the street sign at Brookside Avenue between Sunrise Highway and Merrick Road in Freeport.

There, near the high school, a sign honors Ernest J. Kight Jr., a former president of the Freeport school district Board of Education and a former Freeport High School principal. He died on Feb. 27, 2021, at 68.

“That is the street my husband stood on for over 40 years watching the kids from Freeport High School come and go,” Caruso said. “That was his life.”

A 1971 Freeport High School graduate, Kight in 1975 became a social studies teacher there, then principal at J.W. Dodd Junior High School in Freeport before becoming Freeport High School’s assistant principal in 1991 and later principal, in 2008. After retiring, he was elected to the Freeport school board in 2015 and became its president in 2019.

She knows many looking at the red sign (the school’s color) may not know who he was, but if they are curious, they will learn he was a man who held the high school close to his heart.

“It’s a testimony and a tribute to his life’s work. He loved Freeport and Freeport High School,” Caruso said. “Hopefully, there will be many people left who have known him and can tell what he did.”

Longtime volunteer Nina Cooley

While some people’s good deeds flow via their profession, Nina Cooley’s came through her volunteer work helping others, especially soldiers and veterans.

Cooley, who had eight children, 22 grandchildren, 36 great-grandchildren and eight great-great-grandchildren, sent letters and care packages to thousands of soldiers over the course of 70 years.

Cooley cofounded AMVETS Post 18 of East Islip with her husband, Harold, a World War II veteran, as well as the Ladies Auxiliary of AMVETS Post 18.

After her death on June 24, 2023, at 93, she was honored with the ceremonial naming of “Nina Cooley Way” at the corner of Fawn Drive and Grenadier Lane in East Islip.

“For the family, it provides us with a visual representation of what we know,” said Gary Bodenburg, 43, of Islip, Cooley’s grandson and a special-education teacher and administrator. “When somebody sees it who doesn’t know who Nina Cooley was, if they do a little research, they’ll find out she was a depiction of altruism.”

Cooley and her husband made sure the family united for special occasions, as well as on ordinary days. “We got together almost every weekend,” Bodenburg said. “Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve were always at my grandmother’s house.”

She began writing letters to her brother Stevie when he fought in World War II. She would later continue helping soldiers and veterans, sending letters and care packages and organizing activities at the post.

“She was a die-hard American. She loved her country,” Bodenburg said of Cooley, whose father immigrated from Italy around the turn of the 20th century. “She wanted to do whatever she could to support her country. It stems from her patriotism.”

He said he suggested the street renaming out of a belief that she was a hero in her own way, worthy of recognition. The Town of Islip agreed and conducted the renaming.

“When I showed them [friends and family] the sign, they chuckled,” Bodenburg said. “They said, ‘It’s always been Nina Cooley Way.’ ”