Janet Silvera, Gleaner Writer
LUE
WESTERN BUREAU:
JAMAICA'S FIRST and only female president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), Lucille Lue O.D., died at the MoBay Hope Medical Centre in Rose Hall, St. James, on Christmas Day.
Lue, 62, had been admitted to the Montego Bay medical facility on Sunday morning and died later that night from complications due to kidney failure, according to her only child Richard Lue.
The former hotelier who has had an illustrious career in the hospitality industry, was born in Devon, Manchester. She was general manager of the Coral Cliff Entertainment Resort on the 'Hip Strip', Gloucester Avenue, at the time of her death.
With over 30 years in the hospitality industry, her first job in tourism started at the Colony Hotel (now part of the Half Moon Rose Hall) in the early 1970s.
She later went to the Upper Deck Hotel as assistant manager, then the Seawind Beach Resort in the late 1970s, where she spent some 20 years until that property closed.
A STALWART
The founding member of Summerfest Productions, organisers of Red Stripe Reggae Sumfest, board member of the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo) and chairman of the Montego Bay Resort Board, Lue was described by Prime Minister P.J. Patterson as a stalwart who has served with distinction.
"As president of the JHTA, she brought a sense of purpose and direction to the leadership of the industry, attributes that served the sector well during challenging and difficult circumstances," said a release from the Office of the Prime Minister.
A NO-NONSENSE PERSON
President of the JHTA, Horace Peterkin, in his tribute, said, "The tourism industry will surely miss this veteran. She was a calming influence for the industry who made an outstanding contribution, a no-nonsense person who led from the front at whichever property she ran. She was one of the strongest women to have served in the island's tourism industry."
Ms. Lue lived a full life and worked up to the day before her death.
"My mother lived to work, she lived as she saw it, first her family, then her employees, she was totally selfless," said Richard Lue.
