A sketch of Miss Lou - Jamaica Gleaner

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A sketch of Miss Lou

HER FULL name is Louise Simone Bennett-Coverley but that kind of formality is for other folks. To us she'll always be Miss Lou. The well-known poet and folklorist who lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, returned to the island last week to a 'Ring Ding' of a welcome. Although she hadn't been back for 9 years, when she spoke it was as if she had never left. It was the same voice that over decades had captured the joys, sorrows, and spontaneity of Jamaican life through comedy and poetry. Her love for Jamaican patois runs deep and over the years she has taken it outside the boundaries of the island.

10 facts about Miss Lou

1. She was born on September 7, 1919 in Kingston.

2. She wrote her first dialect poem at age 14.

3. Miss Lou received her education from Ebenezer and Calabar Elementary Schools, St. Simon's College, Excelsior College, all in Kingston, and Friends College in Highgate, St. Mary.

4. She got a scholarship that took her to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art to study in England in the late 1940s.

5. She worked with repertory companies in Coventry, Huddersfield and Amersham as well as in intimate revues across England.

6. Miss Lou taught drama to youth and adult groups both in social welfare agencies and for the University of the West Indies Extra Mural Department.

7. She has lectured extensively in the United States and United Kingdom on Jamaican folklore and music.

8. In 1954 she married Eric Winston Coverley. They had a son together and adopted several other children.

9. She has been described as the "only poet who has really hit the truth about her society through its own language."

10. She enjoys theatre, movies, and auction sales.

Andrene Brown

PRAISES AND ACCOLADES

* On August 11 she will be inducted as a Fellow of the Institute of Jamaica.

* She has been honoured with the M.B.E., the Norman Manley Award for Excellence in the field of arts and the Order of Jamaica in 1974.

* She received the Institute of Jamaica's Musgrave Silver Medal in 1964, and a Gold Medal in 1979. She also received a Centenery Medal in 1980 for distinguished eminence in the field of Arts and Culture.

* In 1983 she was awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor Letters from the University of the West Indies (UWI).

* On Independence Day 2001 she was appointed a Member of the Order of Merit for her distinguished contribution to the development of the Arts and Culture.

* The government has also appointed her a Cultural Ambassador at Large.

* In September 1998 her composition, 'You're going home now', won a nomination from the Academy of Canadian Cinema ad Television, for the best original song in the movie 'Milk and Honey'.

See Also A Tribute To Miss Lou