Forked River Rest Stop Gets a Name Change; Celia Cruz

The Forked River Rest Stop is no more, well the name at least.

The rest stop is still there, of course, and the new construction from several years ago is really nice. It's a quaint rest stop in Ocean County, the only one in Ocean County on the Garden State Parkway. I don't see her connection to Forked River, she was born in Cuba and died in 2003 in Fort Lee, NJ.

According to nj.com, the Forked River Rest Stop has been renamed after New Jersey Hall of Fame, Salsa Dancer, Celia Cruz. The new name for the Forked River Rest Stop is the New Jersey Hall of Famer Celia Cruz. Celia is known as the "Queen of Salsa". From Garden State Parkway Twitter:

Several Rest Stops throughout the state will be named from New Jersey Hall of Famers, also - Whitney Houston, Jon Bon Jovi, Frank Sinatra, Toni Morrison, and James Gandolfini.

The first one to be renamed was the Jon Bon Jovi Service Area on the Garden State Parkway, which was named the Cheesquake service area.

Inside the New Jersey Hall of Famer Celia Cruz Service Area, there will be a mini-museum about the "Queen of Salsa" so we can learn and read all about her. Displays about Celia's life and music career will be out in March at the service area. A little bit about Celia Cruz, she had a music career in Latin and soul from the early 1950s to the 1970s. In that time she recorded close to 80 albums.

Several accomplishments, other than the fantastic New Jersey Hall of Fame, Celia Cruz was on a postage stamp in 2011, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, won numerous Grammy Awards and Latin Grammy Awards, and so much more, according to her website. Check out the whole article on Celia Cruz, thanks to nj.com.

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