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Stina would have only been
13 at the time Evans wrote these moving lines of her poem,
but how befitting they were to our late friend and her
impact to the greater Toledo area. : I am a black woman,
tall as a cypress, strong, beyond all definition still,
defying place and time and circumstance …
When the news hit among
various professionals in the media field and in the
community about the loss of Stina, a former longtime
Community Affairs Director at WTVG 13abc, many of us were
appropriately saddened. We all shared stories of how she
helped us, how her smile was contagious, and of how fiercely
she protected her privacy.
But more than that Stina
was a trailblazer. She was never recognized properly during
her lifetime for breaking racial barriers in the Toledo
media field, but she did just that. She opened doors for
future reporters, journalists, producers and behind the
scenes staff members in both the television news and print
media.
When I was a tender
21-year-old starting out my career as a journalist at The
Blade newspaper, it was Stina who befriended me as a more
established and seasoned media professional. Whenever we
spoke in person or on the phone, Stina was uplifting and
supportive and nurtured me throughout my media career.
As I sat inside the House
of Day Funeral Home recently at her home-going services, my
prayer was that Stina in the afterlife would be made fully
aware of how much we all thought of her, how meaningful and
impactful her life was to all of us in the media arena, and
more importantly, that her legacy would live on forever.
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