Elaine Richardson Park honors ‘Angel of Monterey Highway’
Koffee Kup Cafe owner served meals to truckers and farmers
Beloved business owner Elaine Richardson was well-known for her unfailing kindness and generosity. As owner of the Koffee Kup Café along Monterey Road, Richardson served meals to truckers and farmers, letting those short on money pay her on their return trip. She provided jobs and free meals to those down on their luck so often that it earned her the nickname, “Angel of Monterey Highway.”
Her legacy was sealed into San Jose history Saturday with the opening of Elaine Richardson Park, a $1.7 million, two-acre recreational area at 80 Montecito Vista Dr. The park, with pristine landscaping and expansive lawns, includes a youth and tot play lot, picnic areas, a basketball court, and a stage adorned with a coffee cup art mosaic in honor of Richardson.
The park is the latest in a string of recreational spaces and walking trails to open across San Jose in the past few months, part of the city’s effort to open more parks in time for the holidays. And, the
newest one is certain to be a game-changer in this District 7 neighborhood, where there are plenty of young families but too few parks.
Charlotte Lyter Mankin, Richardson’s daughter, drove nearly three hours from Auburn to unveil the park with other family members. As a young girl, Mankin, now 76, worked as a cashier at her parent’s café in the 1960s, a place she remembers as a lively gathering point where customers from all walks of life — among them the “apricot man,” “Manny the plumber,” migrant farmworkers and truckers — became family.
“Mom was a very giving person,” Mankin said. “She never knew a stranger. She saw to it that no one went hungry.”
So great was her mom’s generosity, said Mankin, that she once let an animal trainer park a truckload full of lions at the café so that he could take a break and find meat for his animals. And when some truckers asked Richardson to keep the café open 24 hours, she obliged, according to Mankin.
Typically, the city’s Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services Department opens three to six parks a year but staff has opened three parks in the past month alone, according to Nicolle Burnham, deputy director of capital programs for the department.
“We had a number of parks that were almost there and ready, and so we were pushing to get them done for the holidays,” she said. “So many people have time off during the holidays and we want families to be able to get outside and have space that they can use.”
Several dozen families and pet owners attended a ribbon cutting ceremony for the park Saturday.
Lorena Villaruel, who lives in an apartment complex nearby, brought her two children and a niece and nephew to mark the occasion.
“It will be a big help to our kids so that they stay more active,” she said in Spanish. “Our apartment is small and we don’t have space for them to run. This will be a joy for them and to us parents as well because we can come here to walk and clear our heads.”
The park was constructed and dedicated to the city by developer Taylor Morrison, who created the Indigo at Montecito Vista apartment complex adjacent to the park.
Rachel Joshua, Richardson’s great-granddaughter, said the park is, particularly, special for the family because they previously did not have a place to pay their respects to Richardson. When she died in 2005, Richardson’s family honored her request to have her body donated to the UC Davis School of Medicine.
“She’s been giving to the community even after she passed away,” Joshua said. “We haven’t had a place or a grave site for her.”
She added: “The fact that this park has her name on it and is in honor of her and the truckers on Monterey Highway and the agricultural community is really special to us.”