Copyright Minnesota House of Representatives. Photo by Catherine Davis
A famed musician continues to be remembered in Minnesota.
The state legislature voted unanimously to rename a section of Highway 5 between Eden Prairie and Chanhassen, the Prince Rogers Nelson Memorial Highway.
Prince lived in Chanhassen at the famed Paisley Park until his untimely death seven years ago, resulting from an accidental fentanyl overdose.
Prince is best known for such hit songs as Raspberry Beret, Let’s Go Crazy, When Doves Cry, and Little Red Corvette.
He wore nearly 1,000 songs during his career, including hits recorded by the Bangles, Morris Day and the Time, and Sheila E.
Chanhassen Representative Lucy Rehm was one of the co-authors of the highway renaming bill.
She says Prince brought people together, not only through music but through his advocacy and philanthropy.
“Prince was very quiet about the gifts he gave. He gave a lot of money out, but he was very quiet about it. He gave $10,000 to the local elementary school for their music education program,” says Rehm.
St. Paul Representative María Isa Pérez-Vegas says Prince’s advocacy ensured children of all colour had equity in the education system.
“He used to provide, yes, a lot of funding and secretly, because he wasn’t about himself, he was about the momentum of movement for all children to be great in this great state,” says Pérez-Vegas.
New road signs that will identify the highway designation will be purple in colour. Normally, they are brown.
“That didn’t seem right for Prince to have a brown sign,” says Rehm. “So after a number of meetings, we were able to get MnDOT (Minnesota Department of Transportation) to agree to that.”
The proposed name designation is now before the state senate for its approval before reaching the desk of the governor.
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