Honors for woman who wouldn’t move

In almost every corner of this neighborhood centered on the colorful Orchard Gardens housing development in Roxbury, Edna V. Bynoe has had some influence. She baby-sat Horace Bowden when he was a boy. At a time when violence was rampant here, she encouraged young troublemakers to go to church. And residents said she was the driving force in bringing a school to the community.

The library at the bright yellow Orchard Gardens K-8 Pilot School already bears the late community activist’s name. Yesterday, as summer arrived with splendid warmth and clear blue skies, several of her relatives joined Mayor Thomas M. Menino underneath a shade tree and unveiled a 3-foot-high granite monolith at the edge of Community Park, along Prescott Street.

Bynoe’s image is etched in the dark gray stone, and now the park will bear her name, too.

“She was not going to let the thugs and the drugs and everything take over where she lived,’’ Valerie Shelley, Bynoe’s sister, said during the park’s dedication ceremony. “She could have moved; she could have bought a house and just left. But she chose not to. She refused to move and said they were not going to push her out. She was going to do something for the community. It was all about the community and never about her.’’

Yesterday was about Bynoe, who died of cancer in March 2010 at the age of 68. About 200 people turned out for the dedication. The school’s chorus and dance troupe performed, and several elected officials praised Bynoe for her activism. Bynoe’s portrait, in primary colors, graced the backdrop, surrounded by similar portraits of children.

“She made this community what it is today,’’ Menino said. “This place was drug-ridden, guns, shootings all the time. And you had to drink a Pepsi-Cola when you were with her.’’

Bynoe’s affinity for the soft drink was but one of the many things remembered about her yesterday. She was mostly comforting, but at times, especially when she sat down with developers, she could be stern and unwavering in her vision for the community, her relatives and friends said.

“She was like my big sister,’’ said Horace Bowden, 63, who lives at the development. “She had ways and understanding and knowing how to get what she wanted, you see. She knew how to maneuver, and she knew how to use politicians. She was down with the politics. She was a very good person, and I loved her.’’

Bynoe had four children and 11 siblings. She was born in 1942 and lived in the housing development from the time she was 3 years old. Shelley said Bynoe raised her family there.

Bynoe grew frustrated in the 1970s watching schoolchildren board buses and leave the neighborhood for far-off schools and decided to spearhead the fight for a community school, Shelley said. Every time the city held a meeting about new schools, Bynoe and other Orchard Gardens residents were there. They formed a community focus group and researched the best teaching practices. Their diligence paid off when the school opened in 2003.

Bynoe was instrumental in redeveloping the Orchard Park housing development in 1999, helping the residents association secure a $58 million HUD grant for the renovation. It became known as Orchard Gardens.