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Also naming the 2900 block of Girard Avenue as "Lana Felton Ghee Way."
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WHEREAS, Lana Jean Felton Ghee was born on April 8, 1947 in North Philadelphia to Howard and Vivian Henry; and
WHEREAS, Mrs. Felton Ghee attended Germantown High School and then Temple University, where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in business administration; and
WHEREAS, In 1967 Mrs. Felton Ghee would marry her first husband, Shedrick Morris Felton II, from which her first two children Shedrick Felton III and Petra Felton were conceived; and
WHEREAS, Mrs. Felton Ghee's career in special events began during the year of our nation's 200th birthday, when City officials selected her to conceptualize and launch Philadelphia's 1976 Bicentennial Celebration; and
WHEREAS, Mrs. Felton Ghee also created the Philadelphia Freedom Festival, which would later be called Welcome America!, the nation's largest Independence Day Celebration, whose Benjamin Franklin Parkway location inspired the creation of nationally acclaimed music festivals on the Parkway such as the Made In America Festival; and
WHEREAS, Her leadership and event-planning skills she demonstrated led to opportunities for work in nonprofit, corporate, political organizations and political figures such as Reverend Jesse Jackson, Governor Ed Rendell, the NBA, Pepsi-Cola, the Million Man March, the School District of Philadelphia, the Criminal Justice Center, and more over the ensuing decades; and
WHEREAS, Between 1980 and 1991, Mrs. Felton Ghee served in a variety of capacities, including serving as the Executive Director of District 1199C National Union of Hospital and Healthcare Employees; President of Government Affairs at Health Partner Plans; and Chief Deputy City Representative under Mayor W. Wilson Goode; and
WHEREAS, On New Years Eve 1984, she married Jimmy Ghee, a well-respected Philadelphia Police Officer and father of Kevin and Theron Ghee, with whom Mrs. Felton Ghee would remain married for the duration o...
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