OAKLAND — Ellen Wyrick-Parkinson, a respected community and social activist who fought for historic preservation, the rerouting of the dreaded Cypress Freeway and creation of the Mandela Parkway, has died. She was 94.

Wyrick-Parkinson, a former Oakland “Mother of the Year,” spent six decades standing up to bureaucracy that would have beaten down a less-determined foe.

She was instrumental in stopping the freeway that collapsed in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake from being rebuilt in the same place. Instead, she pushed for an earthquake memorial park and landscaping of the 1.3-mile scar where the double-decker viaduct once stood, cutting West Oakland in two. The Cypress Freeway Memorial Park was dedicated in 2004, a 1-acre space at 13th, 14th and Center streets, and the beautifully landscaped Mandela Parkway has taken root in place of old freeway.

Her grandson, Carmen Lindsay, said Wyrick-Parkinson died the morning of Dec. 3 at a care home in San Jose.

“I don’t think we have a more dedicated citizen,” said Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney, who represents West Oakland. “She was our living history.”

In 2008, Wyrick-Parkinson was named Oakland’s Mother of the Year. A letter from the board of the Oakland Heritage Alliance in 2008 acknowledged her “long, persistent, dedicated and farseeing advocacy for the preservation of her historically and culturally valuable neighborhood,” which she helped save from indiscriminate demolition during the redevelopment era of the 1970s and ’80s.

As a result of the intense work of Wyrick-Parkinson and other residents, the Oak Center neighborhood was officially designated the city’s largest historic district in 2003.

For about 30 years, Wyrick-Parkinson fought to protect her neighborhood at a time when redevelopment was replacing historic Victorian homes and replacing them with high-rises, said Naomi Schiff, former president of the Oakland Heritage Alliance and current board member.

“Ellen resisted the forces of redevelopment that were knocking down West Oakland,” she said.

Schiff described her as a small woman who stuck to her wits.

“She was this tiny, very well-dressed elegant person,” Schiff said. “She would deliver her opinions. She didn’t let anyone off the hook, and she would stay on you until you did what she wanted.”

She went through a Cadillac phase, driving around big cars and gliding through Oakland, Schiff joked. Wyrick-Parkinson lived in a white Italianate-style historic home on Magnolia Avenue that she filled with her doll collection and kept in pristine condition, she said.

Stefanie Parrott, a Realtor and West Oakland resident, called her “my West Oakland grandma.” The two met some 23 years ago, serving on the Mandela Parkway reuse youth commission.

“From the moment I saw her, you could tell what a force she was,” Parrott said.

She said Wyrick-Parkinson was a rare bird with plenty of feathers in her cap. She attended countless public meetings, including City Council meetings, and several of those who knew her stated “she never let anyone off the hook.”

“She would sit in meetings all the time and demand a golf course for West Oakland, and now we have a little putting green in Raimondi Park,” Parrott said.

Gibson McElhaney said Wyrick-Parkinson was known for holding politicians to their promises and never forgave BART for building elevated tracks along Seventh Street, which tore up a once-lively commercial stretch of West Oakland. The 94-year-old had lived in West Oakland “before BART, before the freeways, before sidewalks,” the councilwoman said.

“If you made a promise to this community 30 years ago, Ellen was holding you to that promise,” Gibson McElhaney said. “And so long as you did not fulfill the promise, she would be there reminding you.”

In Wyrick-Parkinson’s honor, Gibson McElhaney vowed to amp up pressure on BART to submerge the rail line through West Oakland.

Parrott is organizing a “celebration of life” for her on Jan. 6 at the West Oakland Senior Center, located at 1724 Adeline St., from 12 to 2 p.m.

Wyrick-Parkinson is survived by her son Edward Charles Lindsay Jr. and wife Grace of Nevada; grandsons Carmen Christopher Lindsay and wife Victoria of San Jose and Edward John Lindsay and wife Teri of Santa Maria; three great grandchildren and many nephews and nieces.