A legacy of a legend: Jesse Owens oak lives on through clones in Rockefeller Park

Posted May 03, 2021 in Articles

Author: Karin Connelly Rice

The legacy of athlete Jesse Owens, who grew up in Cleveland, was continued last Friday, April 30, when a clone of one of the oak trees given to Owens after the 1936 Olympics was planted at the Rockefeller Park Lagoon on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

The sapling was cloned from the now-84-year-old oak that was planted in Old Brooklyn at James Ford Rhodes High School in 1937 as a symbol of athletic and cultural triumph. It was horticulturally propagated—essentially cloned—in 2017 by Holden Forests & Gardens, working with Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation (OBCDC) to preserve Owens’ Cleveland legacy and place in history.

Click on the link below to read the full article.

Original Article: https://www.freshwatercleveland.com/breaking-ground/JesseOwensTree050321.aspx