Famous Bronxites

Watch: 101 Year Old Bronx Woman—And Runner—An Inspiration For All

Bronx resident Ida Keeling is literally in a league of her own. Keeling, who turns 101 this month, has been racing for over 30 years now.

This centenarian has been setting records, particularly women in the 95-99 year category and now just days before her 101st birthday, has set yet another record for a new age bracket.

Bronx Woman Helen Kane Was Inspiration For Betty Boop

Born in 1904 in The Bronx and attended St Anselm’s Roman Catholic school on Tinton Avenue, Helen Clare Schroeder would eventually become the inspiration for one of the most iconic and lasting cartoon characters, Betty Boop.

Little did Helen Kane, a German-Irish Catholic woman from The Bronx (as she later became known), know that her likeness would set the globe ablaze as one of the first and most famous of all sex symbols in all the world of animation.

Immaculate Conception Church in Melrose Prioritized for Landmarking After 36 Years Since First Introduced for Preservation

36 years ago in 1980, Immaculate Conception Church in the Melrose neighborhood of The Bronx, along with its convent, rectory, and priests’ residence was calendered for landmarking by New York City’s Landmark Preservation Commission but nothing happened.

Until this past Tuesday.

LPC removed 65 properties from the calendar, many of which sat for decades waiting for action, but kept Immaculate Conception and prioritized for designation as a landmark by year’s end pending further hearings and a vote.

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Bronx Birthplace of Hip Hop Being Honored With Street Renaming

It was a hot summer day on August 11, 1973 in the Bronx at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue as DJ Kool Herc and his sister held a party in what would become known as the birth of Hip Hop—a genre which has transcended cultural, national, and many other boundaries by leaps and bounds.

Now, the New York City Council, thanks to the leadership of Councilwoman Vanessa L. Gibson, has passed a resolution to co-name to stretch in front of 1520, ‘Hip Hop Boulevard’ further solidifying The Bronx’s importance in the creation of the genre as the birthplace of Hip Hop.