ROANOKE, Va. – A Roanoke neighborhood advocate passed away at 95 years old but her legacy radiates joy.
Estelle McCadden was a community trailblazer and the backbone of change for the Roanoke community.
She recently passed away at 95 years old after contracting COVID and battling pneumonia for a week.
But former Roanoke City Councilwoman Michelle Davis will never forget the contagious energy McCadden welcomed her with on their first encounter.
“And from that moment on any time she saw me, it was always ‘Hey there, dancing buddy.’ I was always her dancing buddy and I absolutely loved that,” said Davis.
Davis is now the CEO of Boys and Girls Club Southwest Virginia and remembers the countless phone calls McCadden would leave to ensure teenagers in the southwest community were participating in events that encouraged them to use their voices.
After starting up children’s softball and basketball teams in southwest Roanoke, McCadden moved northwest and became a founder of the Melrose Rugby Neighborhood Forum.
Her eldest son, Mac, said she learned her sense of strength and independence from her parents.
“They taught her how to be direct but how to be able to negotiate,” he said. “And those types of things make me want to grow up and be like her today.”
For 15 years, she served as a board member for Neighborhoods USA and was the founder of the Virginia Statewide Neighborhood Conference.
Roanoke City’s Neighborhood Services Coordinator Joshua Johnson knew McCadden for 10 years and said she touched the lives of thousands of people.
“When she talked, you listen,” he said. “You got to work. You didn’t apologize. You didn’t make excuses. Her heart was always in the right place.”
That tough love was also passed down to 31-year-old Jordan Bell.
Bell learned from McCadden for 20 years. Now, he is ready to take the torch from the woman he called the greatest of all time.
“The struggle and the fight will continue and we will see neighborhoods advocate for themselves in her honor of course.”
McCadden will be laid to rest at noon on Feb. 19 at the Garden of Prayer 7 Church on Cove Road.
There will be a wake at Serenity Funeral Home on Glimer Avenue on Feb. 18.