Bennett, Louise 1919-2006

(Louise Bennett-Coverly, Louise Simone Bennett, Miss Lou)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born September 7, 1919, in Kingston, Jamaica; died July 26, 2006, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Actor, singer, broadcaster, educator, folklorist, and author. A popular poet, playwright, folklorist, and broadcaster in her native Jamaica and in Britain, Bennett was often called "Miss Lou" and was at the forefront of making her native patois dialect and folklore popular worldwide. The child of a banker and a dressmaker, she was raised by her mother in Kingston after her father's early death. In school, she developed a love of books and began trying her hand at writing poetry. First encouraged when she won a small prize for reciting a poem in her native Jamaican dialect in 1936, Bennett continued to favor patois in her compositions and released her first book, Dialect Verses, in 1940. Though her style was controversial in Jamaica, where authors at the time favored the Queen's English, she was able to get her early work published in the Gleaner and soon had a column in the Jamaican newspaper. Bennett also began appearing on local radio, where she would frequently spoof politics with her humorous commentary as the character Aunt Roachy. Teaming up with actor Ranny Williams, she found success in Jamaican theater during the early 1940s. Her interest in folklore led her to study the subject at Friends' College in 1943; then, in 1945, Bennett won a British Council Scholarship that allowed her to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Subsequently the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) hired her to host the radio show Caribbean Carnival. England had more employment opportunities for Bennett, and though she returned to her homeland in the late 1940s, she came back to England in 1950. Rejoining the BBC, she hosted West Indian Night. Three years later, she moved to New York City, where she codirected the musical Day in Jamaica, which would go on to New Jersey and Connecticut productions. During the mid-1950s she teamed up with broadcaster Alma John to sing folk songs in Greenwich Village. After marrying, she returned to Jamaica yet again in 1955. There she collaborated with her former actor-partner Williams to write the plays Anancy and Beeny Bud (1958), Jamaica Way (1959), and Carib Gold (1960). During the late 1950s, Bennett also worked for the Jamaica Social Welfare Commission as a drama specialist and head of the recreation department, and she served as director there from 1959 to 1963. In addition, she was a lecturer at the University of the West Indies from 1955 to 1969. Her literary work, meanwhile, earned her international respect, and in 1960 she was made a Member of the British Empire. Continuing her popularity on radio, Bennett appeared on shows such as Laugh with Louise, The Lou and Ranny Show, Miss Lou's Views, and, during the 1970s, the popular children's program Ring Ding. Miss Lou's Views was the most long lasting of these, running from 1965 to 1982. Bennett also recorded such albums as Jamaica Folksongs (1954), Listen to Louise (1968), The Honourable Miss Lou (1981), and "Yes, M'Dear": Miss Lou Live (1983). Songs from her first album, including The Banana Boat Song, also known as Day-O, helped launch the career of singer Harry Belafonte. Bennett's other accomplishments include having served as part of the pantomime management committee for the Little Theatre Movement, patron of the National Dance Theatre Company during the 1960s, and director of the Jamaica Sugar Welfare Board in the 1970s. Later in life, Bennett moved to Canada, where she could better obtain the prescription drugs for her ailing husband. She did not travel to Jamaica again until 2003, after her husband had passed away, to attend a celebration in her honor. The recipient of such awards as the Silver Musgrave Medal of the Institute of Jamaica, the Order of Jamaica, and the Gold Musgrave Medal, Bennett continued publishing into the 1990s. Among her books are Folk Stories and Verses (1952), Jamaica Labrish (1966), and Aunty Roachy Seh (1993). Also a contributor to the Dictionary of Jamaican English and Jamaica Talk, Bennett was a key player in freeing her native dialect and culture from European influences.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

BOOKS

Black Writers, 3rd edition, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1999.

Contemporary Poets, 7th edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 2001.

PERIODICALS

Chicago Tribune, July 30, 2006, section 4, p. 5.

Los Angeles Times, August 2, 2006, p. B11.

New York Times, July 29, 2006, p. A11.

Times (London, England), August 2, 2006, p. 48.

OTHER

The Hon. Miss Lou (documentary film), Jamaica Information Service, 1979.