Beryl Hanna Dead At 77

She was 77-years-old.

Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham said he was sad to learn of Mrs. Hanna’s death.

"Although Mrs. Hanna was born in Britain, she fully embraced and came to love her adopted country and its people and was an excellent example of Bahamian citizenship," he said in a press statement.   

"Mrs. Hanna came to The Bahamas with her husband back in the fifties and right up until the time of her illness participated wholeheartedly in the life of our nation."

      The prime minister’s statement continued that Mrs. Hanna supported her husband and his colleagues in their early struggle for majority rule and was herself on the frontline in that struggle. 

"Along with other outstanding Bahamian women, she took to the streets in placard demonstrations for democratic reform including women’s right to vote," the statement said.

"Mrs. Hanna will be sorely missed by Bahamians of all walks of life and of all political persuasions who came to know her and to develop genuine affection for her. She had a special affinity for the poor and downtrodden of our society." 

Meantime, Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Chairman Bradley Roberts called Mrs. Hanna "an icon of the struggle."

He said both the governor general and his wife joined the struggle as members of the PLP and fought for equality in the country.

"Mrs. Hanna was a natural as if she had lived here all her life. She fit right in. Together she worked, they demonstrated. She helped to change the country," he said.

"Beryl Hanna was there at every major event in the life of our modern political struggle – there when women fought for the right to vote; there when women voted for the first time; there for Black Tuesday in 1965; there for Majority Rule in 1967; there for the struggle against apartheid in South Africa; there as the consort to the governor general in the winter of her life and in the face of very difficult physical circumstances."

Mrs. Hanna, a former chairman of the National Commission for the International Year of the Child, had been a fixture in Bahamian politics, standing side-by-side with her husband during the women’s movement and the meteoric rise of the PLP.

Formerly of Bristol, England, Mrs. Hanna arrived in The Bahamas at the age of 22.

The couple has four surviving children, Arthur Dion, Mark Lindsay, Glenys, and Dawn Victoria. Their fifth child, Sean David, died on December 25, 2005.

Throughout her life in The Bahamas Mrs. Hanna had been her husband’s biggest supporter, standing and fighting by his side with the PLP and in her own right in the struggle for majority rule.

"We owe a great debt of gratitude to this quiet but determined woman; for her loyalty, for her faith, for her struggle to create the modern Bahamas, and for helping to build our party. May her soul rest in peace," Mr. Roberts said.

Fox Hill MP Fred Mitchell also extended his condolences to the Hanna family.

"[Wednesday] morning I learned with great sadness that I had lost one of my closest friends in politics and in my family, Beryl Hanna," he said.

"I grew up calling her Aunt Beryl, a sign of the closeness of my late mother to her husband Arthur, our governor general, who lived with my grandmother Gwendolyn during his years in high school."

Mr. Mitchell called Mrs. Hanna a ‘trooper and a real advocate for the rights of Bahamians and people everywhere.’

"We were kindred spirits. My favourite recollection of her is that iconic photo in the newspaper of herself, Dame Marguerite Pindling and the late Daphne Wallace Whitfield, with the placards supporting the demonstration on Black Tuesday in April 1965 following the PLP’s then leader Lynden Pindling throwing the speaker’s mace out of the window of the House of Assembly," the PLP MP said.

"But our closeness grew when she agreed to join the Bahamas Committee on Southern Africa on which I served as its vice president and she as its honorary chair."

He said that committee was the main anti-apartheid organization in The Bahamas. 

  "The people of the Fox Hill constituency, which her husband once served as the representative, join me in extending condolences to the governor general, to my colleague Glenys Hanna Martin and the entire family," Mr. Mitchell said.

The Women’s Branch of the PLP also offered condolences.

"History will recall the distinguished career that Mrs. Hanna engaged in, and particularly, her fight for the rights of the downtrodden, the rights of women; and the rights of all disadvantaged people, both in The Bahamas and anywhere where people were being discriminated against, denied justice and equal opportunity," a press statement said on Wednesday.

"Although she was not born in The Bahamas, it is safe to say that there were not many individuals more patriotic and loving of this country than Beryl Hanna."

The PLP Women’s Branch said Mrs. Hanna stood up for the rights of all Bahamians when many others living in this country were afraid to do so and she assisted in creating the modern Bahamas.

"We know that a suitable memorial tribute is in order, to celebrate the life and contribution of our dear sister, and we offer our assistance in the execution of a suitable memento," the statement said.