Guilford County often honor’s the lives of those who’ve made the biggest contributions to society and the well-being of the county and its residents, and one of the highest honors the county gives is naming buildings and meeting rooms after people.
Now, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners is going to bestow that honor on the late Commissioner Carolyn Coleman, who died suddenly earlier this year after serving for two decades on the board as the District 7 commissioner.
The Blue Room, on the first floor of the Old Guilford County Court House, will be renamed in Coleman’s honor.
The room is one of the most important in Guilford County government and it’s the commissioners’ go to room when they need a large conference room but not one the size of the board’s very large regular meeting room on the second floor of the Old Guilford County Court House.
The board uses the room to hold closed sessions and afternoon work sessions, as well as to periodically meet with school officials or the local elected delegation of the NC General Assembly.
Over the years many pivotal decisions have been made in the room.
The Blue Room (seen in the photo above) is also used to hold committee meetings for various county functions, and, during elections, it is used by the Guilford County Board of Elections for early voting.
The name “Blue Room” comes from the fact that the walls are blue.
Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston, who spoke at Coleman’s funeral in January, said this week that Coleman, who fought fiercely for civil rights and social justice throughout her life, had been very important to Guilford County, the state and the nation over the years – and this was a way, Alston said, that Guilford County could honor her and her contributions to society.
Coleman died at the age of 79 of natural causes in late January after suffering from various health issues in her later years.
