Boston

Beloved Boston Parking Attendant Dies Days After City Dedicates Facility for Him

Jimmy Donnelly had long dreamed of working at City Hall and worked at the garage that now bears his name since 2013

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A 42-year-old parking attendant honored on Friday as a "face of Boston" when the City Hall Plaza garage was named for him has died, the mayor's office said Monday.

The facility was named after Jimmy Donnelly Friday. He missed the ceremony, where friends and colleagues gathered, because he was in the hospital; he had a disease that damaged his liver and his kidneys.

The South Boston native had long dreamed of working at City Hall and worked at the garage since 2013.

"This is his garage. We want to say thank you for being that face of Boston," said Mayor Marty Walsh at the ceremony. It was Walsh's idea to name the garage for Donnelly.

A sign now stands above the entrance.

"Every day we look at this garage, we'll be thinking of him, and that brings us a smile," said Brian Golden, Boston's director of planning and development agency, on Friday. "He's an unsung hero."

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