Relatives, friends and fans gathered at Stuyvesant Plaza on Friday, June 6, for a tree-planting ceremony in memory of Elise Finch-Henriques, the Mount Vernon native and longtime CBS New York meteorologist who died suddenly at the age of 51 on July 16, 2023.
Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard, a family friend who considered Finch like a younger sister, said the choice of a forest pansy redbud — with the tremendous care needed to help grow it — was befitting of Finch’s “personality, her charm, her grace, her intelligence, her impact, her passion, her colorfulness, her energy.”
“We could have done a statue, but a statue is static,” the mayor said. “But a tree symbolizes life. A tree is something that will continue to give back to this community for decades and generations to come.”
Charlette Finch, Elise’s mother, thanked the mayor and everyone who had a hand in the ceremony.
“We all know that Elise spoke highly, proudly and often about the city of Mount Vernon,” she told the crowd. “Not only was she happy to be a Mount Vernonite, she was overjoyed that Mount Vernon was also proud of her.”
Finch was an Emmy award-winning meteorologist who joined CBS New York in 2007 and for years mentored children through Jack and Jill and other programs.
Later this month, Finch will be posthumously inducted into the Mount Vernon High School Hall of Fame. She graduated from the school in 1989 and had deep roots in the community, her father as a city councilman and public works commissioner and her mother as a librarian and teacher.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Mount Vernon NY plants tree in memory of CBS’ Elise Finch-Henriques