Boston's Annual St. Pat's Day Breakfast To Usher In Host Of 'Firsts'

BOSTON (CBS) --- Many politicians are promising to skip the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade if the gay groups cannot march.

But most won't skip another tradition, the St. Patrick's Day Breakfast, which for years, has been hosted by Irish-American state senators from Southie.

This year's breakfast will have a new host - Sen. Linda Dorcena-Forry.

Dorcena-Forry will be the first woman, person of color, and Dorchester resident to ever preside over the breakfast. On Monday, she told WBZ-TV's Jon Keller, she intends to have fun and in the process, let the world know how much Boston has changed.

"My husband's Irish-American, we have four children and they're half-Irish and half-black, so that's something we do do, celebrate Irish culture," Dorcena-Forry said.

What's in store? Dorcena-Forry says she's studying footage from years past and while it has been a while since a president checked in, she is working on it.

Most of all, she wants to focus on showing what Boston has to offer and maybe changing a few perceptions.

"Boston is a changing city, and I think a lot of times people may view us from other parts of the country as the Boston of the 1970's, we're still the Boston of busing, and I want people to know that we're not," she says.

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