Dressed in Gloria Molina’s signature royal purple, Los Angeles County supervisors voted Tuesday to rename the downtown Grand Park in honor of the pioneering politician who was instrumental in creating the green space.

The dedication comes a week after Molina, 74, said she was living with “very aggressive” terminal cancer. The announcement prompted Supervisor Hilda Solis to write a motion to rename Grand Park Gloria Molina Grand Park. A plaque will be placed in the park in her honor.

Molina made history during her time in politics as the first Latina elected to the State Assembly, Los Angeles City Council and County Board of Supervisors. Molina spent 23 years on the Board of Supervisors, representing the 1st District from 1991 to 2014. Molina’s district stretched from Koreatown, Pico-Union, and East Los Angeles all the way east to Pomona and included much of the San Gabriel Valley.

Molina’s family, friends and colleagues all spoke on Tuesday about Molina’s struggle to build the park, which stretches three blocks between City Hall and the Music Center.

The soon-to-be-renamed 12-acre park also serves as the grassy spine of the Civic Center and connects the County Hall of Administration to Los Angeles City Hall.

“It was her persistence, her tenacity and her perseverance that kept the project going,” said Molina’s husband, Ron Martinez, who said his wife was bedridden and unable to attend Tuesday’s meeting. “Gloria followed her instinct.”

Molina urged the city and county to build the park as part of the Grand Avenue redevelopment project, which saw the erection of two tall towers across from

the

Walt Disney Concert Hall.

“She has fought so hard to redevelop what was once a concrete jungle outside the Hall of Administration into an open green space that has been a beacon of hope for many artists and family gatherings,” said Solis, who, like her colleagues, a bright purple extension in her hair in honor of Molina.

Former supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who served with Molina

on the Supervisory Board

, recalled how Molina, whom he called “tireless,” had refused to delay the developer’s commitment to put at least $50 million into the park. When the Great Recession hit, the developer kept trying to delay it.

But Molina wouldn’t have a budget.

Then they came back another year, “We have to postpone this, this is ridiculous.” She said no,” said Yaroslavsky. “And in the end they just gave up… The park wouldn’t have been built without her.”

As regulators met Tuesday morning, Mayor Karen Bass made a surprise appearance in the city council chamber in honor of what she called a bittersweet moment. Bass joined Tuesday’s council meeting to pass a resolution in support of the county plans introduced by Councilman Monica Rodriguez. “Since I stand here as the first female mayor of Los Angeles, it should be very clear that I stand on the shoulders of Gloria Molina,” Bass said. Los Angeles’ first female mayor said she hadn’t known the city’s first Latina council member well. but that she had long drawn inspiration from Molina from afar. Although we didn’t know each other, I kept an eye on her. as she went into battle relentlessly and very forcefully, Bass said of Molina, adding that she helped shape my determination, my determination, and my leadership. through Grand Park between Temple and 1st Street as the “Gloria Molina Legacy Pathway”, according to De Len’s office