Lady all-stars
Pasadena honors Delano and Rachel Robinson — and their famous late husbands — with Robinson Park celebration
By Joe Piaseki 05/07/2009
Delano Robinson’s comfortable home on MacDonald Street was as full of life Monday as it was of memories.
While several of her grandchildren roamed the house, the 76-year-old widow of Pasadena Olympic great Mack Robinson quietly sifted through a stack of papers and photographs documenting the couple’s life together, as well as the athletic triumphs of Mack and his brother Jackie, who in 1947 broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier by signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers at age 28.
Both Delano and Jackie’s widow Rachel Robinson, founder of the Jackie Robinson Foundation, will take center stage in a series of events this weekend celebrating both the accomplishments of their husbands and a number of improvements slated for Robinson Park, which Mack, who lived with Delano on MacDonald Street for 42 years, fought to have named for his brother.
“Mack was concerned about the youth and that there weren’t too many athletic activities available in Pasadena for African-American kids,” Delano said of her husband, who after his 1936 Olympic stardom (finishing a fraction of a second behind Jesse Owens in the 200-meter dash) worked for the city of Los Angeles before taking on roles as a truancy officer at John Muir High School and youth welfare activist at Pasadena City Hall. “He would see the kids hanging at the corner, falling into the drug and gang scene, with nothing to help them grow up and mature.”
Delano is the guest of honor at a ceremony hosted by Councilman Chris Holden from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at Robinson Park to celebrate continued progress in expanding the park and its master plan, which calls for a new state-of-the-art athletic center to replace the Highland Plastics Co. building (purchased by the city for $4 million) that was demolished last year.
Plenty of work remains to be done, however. While the city has set aside $5.8 million to improve outdoor amenities, the proposed recreation center — which comes with an estimated price tag of $15.9 million — remains unfunded, said city spokeswoman Ann Erdman.
The event marks “a vision for a park that will be modernized and expanded. Fundraising will be aggressively pursued,” said Mayor Bill Bogaard, who on Sunday will present Rachel Robinson, arriving this weekend from Brooklyn, with a ceremonial key to the city during a Mother’s Day lunch from 1 to 3 p.m. at the park.
“It’s a big opportunity and a big milestone for Pasadena … to welcome Rachel Robinson back and to pursue improving a park that is very expressly dedicated to the memory of Jackie Robinson and his brother Mack,” continued Bogaard.
Likewise, “It is a great honor to accept the key to the city of Pasadena,” said Rachel Robinson in a statement sent to the Weekly Tuesday. “Though Jack was born in Cairo, Georgia, the city of Pasadena was the place he called home. It was in the home of his extraordinary mother Mallie Robinson and on its playgrounds and schools that Jack attained the skills to succeed.”
Saturday’s ceremony is followed from noon to 4 p.m. by the Black History Parade and Festival, which was postponed in February — after the officer-involved shooting death of 38-year-old Leroy Barnes during a traffic stop — and later a celebrity basketball tournament at Pasadena City College and a VIP party at the Vault Bar and Grill.
Mack Robinson was only 6 when he arrived in Pasadena from Georgia with his four siblings (including baby brother Jackie) and their single mother in 1920. Mack and Jackie both broke athletic records at John Muir and PCC (then Pasadena Junior College).
Jackie met Rachel, who would later become a nurse and college professor, while attending UCLA. At that time, Pasadena was a racially segregated city, where blacks were kept out of the city’s public pool for all but a few hours a week. The two left town for good when Jackie signed with the Dodgers.
Mack met Delano, who worked as a nurse before their 1955 marriage and after Mack’s death from a heart attack in 2000, while visiting Jackie and Rachel in New York.
Giant memorial busts of Mack and Jackie across from City Hall were dedicated in 1997 and completed in 2002.
“Mack stayed here because he wanted to change Pasadena for the better,” said Delano.
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