Renowned opera star Jessye Norman is being honored in her hometown with four days of celebrations and memorials.
Norman, who died Sept. 30 at 74 , had hoped to live long enough to attend the renaming of the street outside the Jessye Norman School of the Arts, which she opened in 2003 to provide free fine arts education to disadvantaged children.
The ceremony on the newly renamed Jessye Norman Boulevard honors one of the few black opera singers to gain worldwide stardom.
A block away, another street honors another Augusta music giant — James Brown — whose daughter Deanne Brown Thomas attended a second day of public viewing Friday at an Augusta church.
Norman’s funeral is scheduled Saturday and a benefit concert for the school follows Sunday.q
