LEBERTHA PALMER, who was born on March 20, 1909, died last Saturday at age 100. Her centenary milestone earlier this year was cause for celebration of a life noted for its generosity of spirit. She was compassionate and caring throughout her adult years, long noted for constant kindness to all and malice to none.

Born in the village of Sherwood Content in Trelawny, Palmer became a model daughter of the God-fearing Dexter family. She was firmly rooted in Christian values and the practise of good neighbourliness, a sense of what is right and wrong, a willingness to forgive and was always ready to share with the disadvantaged.

These values continued and developed in her later life in Falmouth where she raised four children - Iris, Rex Milton, Daphne and Geddes Sonny.

Strong sense of history

Her subsequent sojourn to Montego Bay had her engaging in voluntary churchwork as a long-standing, faithful Sunday school teacher with the historic Calvary Baptist Church. There she reinforced her strong sense of history surrounding the abolition of slavery in which the Jamaican Baptist church played a significant role, leading up to Emancipation in 1838. Generations of Sunday school pupils recall her influence and strong commitment to freedom, education of the descendants of slaves, justice and dignity. Direct beneficiaries were her two grandchildren whom she reared and schooled.

Such is the legacy she has left through a long life of service to both family and friends, as well as to the many young people she voluntarily 'adopted' and reared to the attainment of purposeful and productive lives of achievement of excellence. Not least among those she reared was her own son, Professor Rex Nettleford, a roving ambassador for his native Jamaica, a well-known Caribbean intellectual, creative artist and cultural activist.

She continued her activities as caregiver, facilitator and goodwill foster parent when she migrated to the United States where she worked for more than 30 years.

A thanksgiving service in tribute to her will take place on Saturday at the Wake-Eden Community Baptist Church, Strang Avenue, Bronx, New York, with Pastor Reverend Dr Samuel G. Simpson officiating.

Condolences poured in from Professor Nettleford's wide range of friends and colleagues in the fields of education and culture, including former prime ministers Edward Seaga, Portia Simpson Miller and P.J. Patterson, as well as members of the National Dance Theatre Company.