Syracuse, N.Y. — Mayor Sharon Owens’s mother, Pastor Ester L. Daniels, died this morning, according to the mayor’s office.
At her inauguration, Owens credited her success to her mother’s brave decision as a 19-year-old to leave poverty and segregation in Florida for opportunity in Geneva, N.Y.:
“I acknowledge that this journey did not begin Sept. 30, 2024. It was forged through the faith and fortitude of our enslaved and indigenous ancestors, a woman named Harriet, Jerry and his rescuers, Martin, Malcolm and a 19-year-old shero named Ester determined to escape the poverty and discrimination of the Jim Crow South for the hope and opportunity of New York,” Owens said during her Jan. 3 inauguration as Syracuse’s first Black mayor…