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| Mrs. Leanna Hicks |
The Inkster Public Library is named for Mrs. Hicks, a former journalist, community worker, youth director, historian, library activist and humanitarian. Mrs. Hicks spent more than half a century involved in the improvement of local libraries and the preservation of local history. Through her more than four decades of service of the Inkster Historical Commission, she oversaw hundreds of acquisitions and improvements in the Inkster library and historical collections. She was the founder of The Friends of the Inkster Library, a decades-old Inkster library support group. She also served with the Wayne County Federation Library and the Wayne County Library Commission during her storied career.
Mrs. Hicks earned a degree in journalism and social science from Eastern Michigan University and Wayne State University. She received countless humanitarian awards from institutions such as the YWCA, Girl Scouts of America, Veterans groups, NAACP, Gamma Phi Delta Sorority, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, City of Inkster Parks and Recreation and Inkster Christians in Action, among many others. She also received numerous national, state and county tributes and awards along with the many honors she received from the City of Inkster. Among those was the designation of the Leanna Hicks Public Library in Inkster, first opened in September 1960. A new library building on Hamlin Street was dedicated to Mrs. Hicks in 2020.
Mrs. Hicks was actively involved in the Springhill Missionary Baptist Church in Inkster for more than 50 years.
Funeral arrangements were entrusted to the Chapel of the Chimes Funeral Home in Westland.
