Repeating Islands

Gladys Bustamante, the widow of Jamaica’s first prime minister and a fierce supporter of women’s and workers’ rights, has died. She was 97. A statement from the office of Prime Minister Bruce Golding says Bustamante died Saturday at the hospital after suffering from a fever.

“Lady B,” as she was known, married Alexander Bustamante in 1963, one year after Jamaica was granted independence from Britain.  Her husband was named a national hero, an honor bestowed to a select few including black civil rights leader Marcus Garvey. Gladys Bustamante continued to work for the Jamaica Labor Party long after her husband died in 1977 at age 93.

The Jamaica Observer wrote this today in its obituary:

Yes, the passing of our ‘Lady B’, born Gladys Maud Longbridge in 1912, does indeed mark the end of an exciting, colouful era which we should never be tempted to take for granted.

But for her and her husband’s efforts, which inspired the work of many others, the labour industry would not be – for better or worse – what it is today.

That her work transcended the pettiness that is often attached to politics is evident from the affection that she enjoyed from Jamaicans everywhere who will truly feel her passing.

For the obituary in the Jamaica Observer go to http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/editorial/html/20090726T230000-0500_156189_OBS_LADY_B__NATIONAL_TREASURE.asp