The Dallas City Council voted Tuesday to rename Union Station to honor longtime U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson.
The transit station will now be called Eddie Bernice Johnson Union Station. The renaming coincides with Union Station's 100th anniversary.
The council's unanimous vote came after several council members took turns praising Johnson, a Dallas Democrat and the first woman and first black representative from Dallas.
"She was a pioneer," Mayor Mike Rawlings said. "She is a heroine of Dallas like few have ever been."
Southern Dallas council members Erik Wilson and Casey Thomas proposed the renaming. Wilson has said former Mayor Ron Kirk, for whom the city renamed the Continental Avenue Bridge this year, suggested the idea.
Wilson said Tuesday that Johnson has been "a pillar" for Dallas and excelled in Congress when it was time to "bring home the bacon." Johnson's advocacy for transportation and Dallas Area Rapid Transit made the renaming especially fitting, he said.
Thomas said he has long watched Johnson from afar and has recently gotten to know her personally.
"I've come to admire her even more for her passion, her diligence," he said.
Council member Rickey Callahan said Johnson, who had served as a state legislator before she was elected to Congress in 1992, is a Dallas mainstay and deserved the honor.
"It was almost impossible to remember when we didn't know the name Eddie Bernice Johnson," Callahan said.
SOURCE: Dallas Morning News
