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‘City of Roses’
Volume XLV
Number 44
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • November 2, 2016
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Nearly 70 years of Gordly family history and memories live in the walls of their childhood home at 4511 N. Williams Ave. Historical pictures (clockwise, from left) show
parents Beatrice and Fay L. Gordly; the family’s red couch where brother Tyrone Gordly sits next to his sisters Avel and Faye, Faye’s new born daughter Michelle on her lap
and Avel’s young son Tyrone; Jefferson High School students sitting outside the home after an educational tour; and Avel and Faye as children.
Preserving Black Portland
Gordly family home to be cultural center
C ervante P oPe
t he P ortland o bserver
Dreams of a historic center to honor of
by
the black community and dispel Portland’s
designation as the “whitest major city in
America” is the force behind a plan to
transform the home of one of Portland’s
most prominent African American figures
into a home base for recognizing and pre-
serving the city’s most repressed popula-
tion.
On North Williams Avenue sits the
childhood home of Oregon’s first African
American female senator, Avel Gordly and
her sister Faye Burch, a small business
owner and advocate.
The home has remained in the fami-
C ontinued on P age 15