Washington DC is known for memorials to great Americans – Abraham Lincoln, Mary McLoud Bethune, Franklin Roosevelt, and Sonny Bono.
Yes, Sonny Bono is memorialized in a small park in downtown Washington.
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For those of you who don’t remember, Sonny Bono was half of the married pop duo Sonny and Cher. They had some big hits in the 60s and 70s starred in two TV variety shows. They divorced in 1975. Cher went on to bigger and better things.
Following the split, Sonny, the less talented of the two, opened a restaurant in Palm Springs. In the process he was outraged to find that there are and laws and regulations to protect consumers. Frustrated with Palm Springs government, he ran for mayor and won!
In 1994 he won a seat in Congress representing California’s 44th district. Bono was considered a serious Congressman and would have probably had a long, if undistinguished career, if he hadn’t died when he skied head-on into a tree at Lake Tahoe, Nevada in 1998.
Now let me make this clear, Sonny Bono Park is not a national park. The federal government has nothing to do with it. A real estate developer who was a friend of Sonny went through the city’s adopt-a-park program to revitalize this 800 square foot traffic triangle at the intersection of 24th Street, O Street, and New Hampshire Ave., NW.
So where does Sonny Bono Park stand in relationship to other memorials in Washington? I think it’s just the right size.
