The Park Dedicated To Bob Marley In Wilmington, Delaware

Bob Marley’s mother Cedella Malcolm Marley gave birth to the legendary reggae musician on this date in 1945. Cedella was 18 years old at the time and raised her son within the mountainous St. Ann parish in the rural area of Jamaica known as Nine Miles.

Bob Marley’s father, Norval Marley, was 59 years old when his son was born. The elder Marley maintained little contact with his son, though he provided some financial assistance until he died in 1955 at age 70.

Over subsequent years, Bob Marley remained close to his mother, moving to different locations in Jamaica, including the Trenchtown neighborhood in Kingston that would later be memorialized in song. Sometime in the early 1960s, accounts vary regarding the exact year, Cedella moved to Wilmington, Delaware.

Cedella met Edward Booker while visiting her sister who lived in Wilmington and by 1963 she had married Booker and moved from Jamaica to Wilmington. Cedella Booker resided at 2313 Tatnall St. in Wilmington and was the proprietor of the Roots music store on Market St. Bob Marley later purchased the home next door at 2311 Tatnall St.

The exact whereabouts of Bob Marley’s time spent in Wilmington are difficult to determine. In an interview Cedella gave to the Wilmington News Journal that was published in December 1976, she stated that Bob moved with her to Wilmington in 1963 when he was 18 years old.

“He was here about a year and the only time I really saw him happy was when he knew he was going to go back to Jamaica,” Cedella Booker said. “He didn’t go out. He would say he preferred to stay here. He had a little book and he would write the words that came to his mind, then take his guitar and pick out a tune until he had something.”

After residing in Jamaica for a few years, Bob Marley came to America in 1966 to live with his mother in Wilmington. Marley brought his newlywed wife Rita Marley during this stint living outside of Jamaica.

Bob Marley spent his time in the United States working to raise money to start his own record label back in Jamaica. He worked, purportedly under the alias “Donald Marley,” as a forklift operator at the Chrysler-Newark Assembly Plant in Newark. Marley’s later-released song, “Night Shift,” was supposedly inspired by the job. He also was employed as a lab assistant at DuPont.

Following this stint in America, Bob Marley continuously came back to Wilmington, Delaware. He purported was in Wilmington in August 1969 and almost went to Woodstock, to help a friend sell jewelry rather than perform at the landmark festival.

Bob and Rita Marley’s son Stephen Marley was born in Wilmington in 1972. The couple’s other children, Ziggy Marley and Cedella Marley (named after her grandmother), spent time in Wilmington as well, with all three siblings attending George Gray Elementary School.

Cedella Booker closed her music store in late 1976 after a string of robberies. Bob Marley’s visits to Wilmington continued, including attending a picnic in July 1977. After Edward Booker’s death, Cedella Booker moved to Miami and was beside her son when he died in Miami on May 11, 1981.

In 2014, Wilmington renamed a park across from Marley’s former home on Tatnall St. “One Love Park” in his honor. The inscription on the plaque at “One Love Park” reads:

Originally named Tatnall Street Playground in 1907, this park is located across the street from the home at 2311 Tatnall Street that singer-songwriter Bob Marley occupied with his mother in 1966. In order to raise funds to start his own record label in Jamaica, Marley assumed the alias “Donald Marley” and worked as a lab assistant at DuPont and on the assembly line at the nearby Chrysler plant, among other jobs. To honor Marley’s time in Delaware, the park was renamed “One Love Park” in 2014, taking its name from the singer’s hit 1977 song with The Wailers, “One Love/People Get Ready.”

The 30th Annual People’s Festival: A Tribute To Bob Marley will be held in August 2024 at Wilmington’s Tubman Garrett Riverfront Park. The long-running event celebrating the reggae legend was founded by Godfrey “Ibis” Pitts, one of Marley’s only friends from Wilmington who was the aforementioned jewelry maker headed to Woodstock.

[Originally Published February 6, 2024]