(From DCist contributor William Beutler)

Diminutive though he was, Sonny Bono‘s shadow stretches longer than most from the Republican class of 1994, thanks in part to his controversial Copyright Term Extension Act and the political career of his widow, Mary Bono, who has now held the Palm Springs-based seat for longer than he did.

Bono is also remembered in this town at the confluence of 20th and O streets NW along New Hampshire Avenue, the site of Sonny Bono Memorial Park. One could walk past it regularly for years (as we did) without realizing that this triangular green space is something more than a well-tended traffic island a block south of Dupont Circle.

The park covers about 800 square feet, overlaid with Kentucky bluegrass, dotted with stone benches and accented by a seven-foot Japanese maple. The area is encircled (entriangled?) with juniper bushes and delimited by a low, wrought iron fence. At the entrance is a plaque one practically has to step on to get inside, reading: “IN MEMORY OF MY FRIEND SONNY BONO 1935-1998; ENTERTAINER; ENTREPRENEUR; STATESMAN; FRIEND.”