CLEVELAND, Ohio- Call and Post Associate Publisher and Executive Editor Constance "Connie" Harper(pictured) was laid to rest Saturday morning during funeral services at Olivet Institutional Baptist Church on Cleveland's east side, a homegoing service supported by hundreds, if not thousands, including dignitaries, Black clergy, media personalities, community activists, and local journalists. (Editor's note: Led by Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge, a Warrensville Heights Democrat and chair of the Congressional Black Caucus of Blacks in Congress, the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority saluted Harper Friday evening during a standing-room-only ceremony at Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church in Cleveland. Harper was an active remember of Delta Sigma Theta and Fudge is a former national president of the distinguished Black sorority of Black women).
The family of international boxing promoter Don King, 83, a Cleveland native and the owner and publisher of the Call and Post, sent yellow-stemmed roses for the occasion.
Harper, of Shaker Heights, who would have turned 82 on Oct 28., died on Oct. 24 at a Dayton, Ohio hospital after suffering a heart attack last Sunday at the homecoming of her Alma mater, Central State University. She was the Cleveland alumni chapter president of CSU.
Among those at Saturday's funeral, a packed house in fact, were U.S. Sen Sherrod Brown, Fudge, retired congressman Louis Stokes, former Cleveland City Council president George L . Forbes, who is also general counsel for the Call and Post, Ohio's oldest and most prominent Black newspaper, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Advance Local Vice President Debra Adams Simmons, Carole Hoover, Cuyahoga County Councilpersons Jack Schron and Anthony Hairston, and state representatives Armond Budish and Bill Patmon.
“Connie Harper was not only a legend in Cleveland journalism, she was a fierce Civil Rights advocate and leader," said Brown, a Cleveland Democrat and senior member of the United States Senate.
"The loss of Connie Harper will be felt throughout our entire community, " said Mayor Jackson. "She was more than just the Editor of the Call & Post who will be greatly missed."
Others there include Call and Post employees and alumni of CSU, Cleveland City Community Relations Board Director Blaine Griffin, Cleveland News Chanel 3 Anchorman and Reporter Russ Mitchell, Cleveland 19 Action News Anchorman and Reporter Harry Boomer, Cool Cleveland Correspondent Mansfield Frazier, Cleveland Ward 6 Councilwoman Mamie Mitchell, Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Pauline Tarver, East Cleveland City Councilman Mansell Baker, and City of Cleveland Mayoral Executive Assistant Valerie McCall.
Community activists there include Khalid Samad of Peace in the Hood, Laura Cowan of the Laura Cowan Foundation, Amy Hurd of the Carl Stokes Brigade, Kathy Wray Coleman of the Imperial Women Coalition, Robert "Brother Bob" Saffold, Grio Y-Von, Yvonne Pointer, a city of Cleveland community relations liaison, and Dick Peery, a retired Cleveland Plain Dealer Newspaper reporter.
A video presentation of Harper's life featured Stokes, Ohio's first Black congressman, Fudge, the current congressperson of the 11th congressional district, former senior pastor and pastor emeritus of Olivet the Rev Dr. Otis Moss Jr., and Hoover, one of Harper's close friends and confidants.
Retired Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals Judge Sara J. Harper, one of two surviving siblings of Connie Harper, spoke on behalf of the family and said that her baby sister was an avid reader and writer who dressed to the nines, and that she loved Cleveland, and trained local journalists to perfection.
The supremely talented Olivet choir sang and Connie Harper's equally talented nephew, Rodger C. Varner, performed an independent solo.
A host of preachers spoke, including the Rev Ledra Bigelow, who read a proclamation from President Barack Obama, and the Rev. Dr. Todd C. Davidson, senior pastor at Antioch Baptist Church in Cleveland.
The articulate Colvin, senior pastor at Olivet since 2009, who succeeded Moss, said that Harper, as the local alumni chapter president of CSU, understood the importance of historically Black colleges and universities, and that she knew that some Black students needed the extra help that Black institutions of higher learning bring to students who might not ordinarily graduate.
He said during his 25-minute eulogy that Harper understood that Black colleges and universities serve to "believe in you when you do not believe in yourself."
Colvin said that Harper was a news editor par excellence and that she promoted the positive aspects of the Black community rather than just fatal shootings and other crimes.
Ordinary people at the funeral also mourned Harper, an 83-year-old woman telling Cleveland Urban News.Com that Harper had sometimes eaten Sunday dinner with her family and gave to the local food bank, and another saying that "I did her hair."
Rep. Patmon, a Cleveland Democrat of Ohio's 10th state legislative district, said after the funeral that Connie Harper "was a community icon and is irreplaceable."
