City officials, family and friends are preparing to pay final tributes to Jewel Collins, the trailblazing community advocate known as the “Queen of Cocoa” who marched in the Civil Rights Movement alongside her husband, worked as an educator and became the first African American woman to serve on the city council.
Collins died May 29. She was 89.
“Jewel is like her name indicates. She was the jewel of the community,” Cocoa Mayor Mike Blake said, recalling how Collins’ impact touched countless lives.
“She broke barriers and was actively involved on the state and local levels, fighting diligently for others in the state capital. She was loved by everyone.”
The homegoing service for Collins will begin at 5 p.m. Friday, June 12, at the Fiske Boulevard Church of Christ, 805 S. Blake Blvd., Rockledge. Final services will take place at the church at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 13.
A woman of faith and devotion to community
Collins became a housekeeper at the Polaris Motel in Cocoa Beach, raising three children. She became the housekeeping supervisor while also taking night classes to study economics, psychology, and other subjects, according to the Leon and Jewel Collins Museum in Cocoa.
“(She) was not only a community servant, community mother, counselor and sometimes the community lawyer … More importantly she was our sister in Christ” said Cocoa Deputy Mayor Alex Goins, whose family was deeply connected to Collins.
He praised Collins’ efforts — noted at the Cocoa museum named in honor of her and her husband — to improve the city and culture of the area, crediting her with providing him with guidance on his career in public service.
“This wouldn’t have been my path without the advice, mentorship, and encouragement from Sister Jewel Collins. The Goins family will forever love and respect the Queen of Cocoa,” he said.
Both Collins and her husband, a soul music drummer who later worked for the Pan Am airline, engrained themselves in civil rights work, joining the Central Brevard branch of the NAACP as the nation and state wound through years of protest marches for voting rights and desegregation.
In 1973, Leon Collins became the first African American to be elected to the Cocoa city council. More than two decades later, Jewel Collins — who traveled to Tallahassee to lobby on behalf of her community — was elected to the same council in 1999, with a focus on redevelopment for the city and the historic Diamond Square district. At one point, she served as deputy mayor.
After her husband’s death at 62 in 2001, Collins continued her social advocacy, working with the Cocoa Rockledge Civic League, the NAACP and other groups.
Blake, who lost to Collins in his bid for the city council in 2002, talked about the ties his family had to Collins.
When his father Dick Blake, an iconic community advocate who died in June 2025, first decided to run for Rockledge City Council in the 1970s, Collins served as his treasurer.
Years later, Collins would lovingly tap Mike Blake’s wrist as he spoke on certain issues.
“She had a great sense of humor,” Blake said.
“She was a true woman of vision.”
J.D. Gallop is a criminal justice/breaking news reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Gallop at 321-917-4641 or jgallop@floridatoday.com. X, formerly known as Twitter: @JDGallop.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: ‘Queen of Cocoa’ Jewel Collins, former city councilmember, dies at 89
Reporting by J.D. Gallop, Florida Today / Florida Today
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
