Statesboro city officials will host a ceremony at 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 13, to rename Brown Street as Loretta’s Way to honor the life and legacy of Loretta Johnson Williams, Statesboro native and long-time community advocate.

The location for the ceremony is 23 West Grady Street Extension, with parking on Brown Street.

“Loretta Williams, she was a star worker in this community,” Mayor Jonathan McCollar told the Statesboro Herald. “She worked with many of us young folks. As a matter of fact, she was the one who introduced me to community advocacy when I was just 13 or 14 years old and she had a youth group.”

Williams, a substance abuse counselor for Pineland Mental Health at John’s Place and later a Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office employee, created the youth organization called Statewide Minority Advocacy Group for Alcohol and Drug Prevention, or “Smagadap.” 

Teenage members from across the state attended conferences in Atlanta and on St. Simons Island, the mayor recalled.

“She really took a lot of us under her wing and really guided us, and a lot of those kids who were part of that program have gone on to be great contributors to their communities, respectively, and so we want to honor her legacy by continuing the work,” he said.

Loretta J.  Williams died June 27, 2022, at age 84.

After initial thoughts of renaming West Grady Street Extension – beyond West Grady where the Statesboro Police Department, Statesboro Fire Department and Bulloch County EMS headquarters and Rev. W.D. Kent Park are located – for Wiliams, city officials last fall decided to instead rename all of relatively short Brown Street. This will maintain the continuity of addresses on West Grady, McCollar said.

Brown Street, now to be Loretta’s Way, connects West Grady Street Extension and Johnson Street and is intersected by Dunlap Street.

No members of the public spoke either for or against the renaming when a hearing was held during the Nov. 7 City Council meeting after public notice. Then on Nov. 21 council members by a 5-0 vote approved the renaming resolution for Loretta’s Way on a motion by District 2 Councilmember Paulette Chavers, seconded by District 4 Councilmember John Riggs.

The street is in Chavers’ district, and she had first proposed naming a street Loretta’s Way in summer 2023.

McCollar, Chavers and “friends of Loretta Johnson Williams will offer remarks before the official unveiling of the new street sign,” city Public Information Officer Layne Phillips wrote in a notice to media organizations.