Several blocks of Hobbie Avenue, a main thoroughfare through Kankakee’s east side, will soon hold the honorary designation of “Mayor Chasity Wells-Armstrong Avenue.”

On Tuesday, the Kankakee City Council unanimously approved a resolution for the designation.

Wells-Armstrong holds the distinction of being Kankakee’s first Black mayor and only the second woman elected mayor.

The designation will be for the 100 through 700 blocks and the 900 block of the rebuilt Hobbie Avenue after the mayor who served from 2017-21.

An honorary street designation does not change the name of a street. The honorary street name is placed on the street sign below the officially recognized name.

During the years, the city has honored people through this practice. Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan and his wife, Lura Lynn, recently were honored with this designation, where they had lived along South Greenwood Avenue.

Also on Tuesday, the council approved an honorary designation for Hobbie Avenue’s 800 block as “John and Letha Malone Lane.”

Prior to becoming mayor in May 2017, Wells-Armstrong served as a 5th Ward alderwoman, where she held the distinction of being the first Black woman to hold this position in the 5th Ward.

Wells-Armstrong, a Democrat, sought a second term as Kankakee mayor, but was overwhelmed by her Republican opponent, Chris Curtis, in the 2021 campaign.

Having grown up in the Hobbie Heights neighborhood, Wells-Armstrong left her mark on the area as mayor.

She set out to have Hobbie Avenue rebuilt. The construction project, long a part of the Kankakee County Metropolitan Planning Organization’s project list, was set for reconstruction, but the MPO’s focus shifted to an area in Bradley and Bourbonnais.

Local transportation planners shifted to have the Armour Road and Illinois Route 50 intersection at the CSL Behring area expanded and reconstructed. This switch pushed back the Hobbie Avenue project.

Wells-Armstrong and city engineer Neil Piggush worked to keep the widening and reconstruction of Hobbie Avenue at the top of the list, and the project went ahead.

During Tuesday’s council meeting, Wells-Armstrong said she fought to make sure the Hobbie Avenue project did not “fall through the cracks again.”

Ironically, both of these multimillion-dollar projects were officially completed at nearly the same time this year.

Wells-Armstrong also was the inspiration behind the Kankakee Riverwalk project, which is now taking shape with the first key piece being the $5-million East Riverwalk at Kankakee River, where South Schuyler Avenue and East River Street intersect.

Regarding John and Letha Malone, the late couple were the parents of current 1st Ward Alderwoman Cherry Malone Marshall.

The Malones were longtime Hobbie Avenue residents and operated the East Court Street Convenient Food Mart, as well as Malone’s Laundromat.

The laundromat business was operated along Hobbie and was a business fixture for more than 30 years. John died in 1986. Letha remains a Hobbie Avenue resident.