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Read the press release here.

Memorial Service for Queens Boro President Helen Marshall Set for Sunday

By Katie Honan | March 16, 2017 11:45am | Updated on March 17, 2017 7:43pm
 The former borough president of Queens died earlier this month in California.
The former borough president of Queens died earlier this month in California.
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DNAinfo/Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska

​KEW GARDENS — A formal memorial service will be held to honor the late Helen Marshall, who died earlier this month after serving 12 years as Queens borough president.

Current Borough President Melinda Katz will join the Marshall family in hosting a celebration of her life this Sunday, March 19, at 3 p.m. at Queens Borough Hall, 120-55 Queens Blvd.

Marshall was born in The Bronx in 1929 and worked as a teacher for eight years before becoming the first director of the Langston Hughes Library in East Elmhurst, where she lived.

She first entered politics in the 1980s and was elected to the State Assembly in 1982. She then was a member of the City Council from 1993 until 2001, when she was elected to become the first African-American borough president of Queens.

In 2013 she moved to California, where she died earlier this month at 87.

"Helen Marshall was a trailblazer who inspired many to pursue public service," Katz said in a press release about Sunday's memorial.

Multiple local civic groups — many of which were helped by Marshall while she was in office — are co-sponsoring the memorial, which is open to the public. 

Officials ask that those interested in attending RSVP here.