Thanksgiving Service for “Miss Lou” in Toronto on August 3

A delegation comprising Minister of Housing, Transport, Water and Works, Robert Pickersgill; Minister of State in the Ministry of Tourism, Entertainment and Culture, Dr. Wykeham McNeill, and Member of Parliament for Central St. Catherine, Olivia Grange, will join the hundreds of mourners in Toronto, Canada, who are expected to pay their last respects to Jamaica’s Ambassador of Culture, the Hon. Louise Bennett-Coverley.
The Service of Thanksgiving celebrating the life of Miss Lou will be held on Thursday, August 3, at the Revivaltime Tabernacle, 4340 Dufferin Street, beginning at 11 a.m.
Miss Lou, who had made Toronto her home since 1988, died on Wednesday, July 26 at the Scarborough Grace Hospital, after collapsing at home earlier that morning.
The officiant at the Service will be Bishop Dr. Audley James, Founder and Senior Pastor of Revivaltime, who will be assisted by Dr. Pat Francis of Pat Francis Worldwide Ministries.
Maud Fuller, the actress who played the part of “Liza” for many years on the ‘Lou and Ranny’ radio show, will read the eulogy.
Speaking with JIS News, Miss Fuller recalled the first time she met Miss Lou in 1956. “She had just returned from studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in England and had started a class in Improvisational Theatre at the University of the West Indies (UWI) that I attended. Later that year, she invited me to perform with her in the first pantomime, ‘Busha Bluebeard’. Then a year later when the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation was to be opened, she chose me to be one of the comedians that would make up the ‘Lou and Ranny’ show,” Miss Fuller said.
Miss Fuller said she was honoured to have performed with Miss Lou in nine pantomimes and “for as long as the ‘Lou and Ranny’ show ran, except for the year I studied in England.”
Tributes will also come from celebrated actress Leonie Forbes; author Olive Senior; Michael Lashley, Consul General of Trinidad and Tobago; Sandra Carnegie-Douglas, President of the Jamaican Canadian Association (JCA) and long-time friend, Gail Scala.Family and friends will be able to view Miss Lou’s body at the Highland Funeral Home, 3280 Sheppard Avenue East in Scarborough on August 2, from 4:00 to 9:00 p.m. and also on Thursday at the church, one hour before the service.
Following the service, a reception will take place at the JCA centre, 995 Arrow Road. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Women for PACE (Canada) for the Mission Basic School in Gordon Town, which Miss Lou adopted.
In keeping with Miss Lou’s wishes to be buried by the side of her late husband of 48 years, Eric Coverley, his body and that of Miss Lou’s will be returned to Jamaica for the official funeral that the Government of Jamaica will accord Miss Lou, as announced recently by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller.