Under the canopy of the historic 165-year-old Coke Methodist Church where she began her dizzying climb to national adulation at age 17, Louise ‘Miss Lou’ Bennett-Coverley yesterday took her final curtain call, as her compatriots eulogised her as an icon among icons.

Friend and vice-chancellor emeritus of the University of the West Indies Professor Rex Nettleford remembered Miss Lou as a major contributor to the expansion of knowledge that now informs a modern Jamaican nation and dynamic Caribbean society on the road to self-definition and cultural purpose.

“Louise Bennett was…arguably, the only citizen of Jamaica who could raise more cheers from the popular mass than any Jamaican political leader, however charismatic,” said Nettleford at the official funeral service for her in the red-bricked sanctuary at East Parade, in downtown Kingston, named after Thomas Coke, the man who brought Methodism to the Caribbean.

The gloom usually associated with funerals was visibly absent among the packed congregation that included Governor-General Kenneth Hall, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, former prime ministers P J Patterson and Edward Seaga, other dignitaries, family members and representatives of the cultural community. Thousands more followed the funeral rites via live radio and television broadcasts.

Louise Bennett-Coverley died on July 26 in Scarborough, Canada aged 86. After the funeral service yesterday, she was buried under a poinsettia tree at the National Heroes Park, beside her husband, Eric Coverley who predeceased her and whose body was brought home alongside hers to be interred in the land of their birth.

At age 17 when Miss Lou gave her first ever performance at the Coke Methodist Church, she brought smiles to many of her compatriots, the beginning of a lifetime of laughter. Yesterday, it was their time to honour her life’s work, which spanned five decades.

And while no tears were shed during the proceedings, the reality of her death hit home for many when the eight smartly dressed policemen moved rhythmically with her flag-draped casket to the melodious tune of the Jamaican folk classic Evening Time performed by Carole Reid.

But as the casket exited the church, Enid Douglas, a long-time friend of Miss Lou and neighbour in Gordon Town, could no longer control her tears. She asked to be helped out of her wheelchair so she could stand in a final salute to her departed friend.

“I miss her so much and I don’t want to lose her. Up until this moment, I never believed she is dead,” she said, wiping the tears from her eyes with frail hands.

Her sister, Professor Daphne Douglas, chipped in with a note of history that Miss Lou had coined the phrase ‘tun yuh han’ mek fashion’ when Enid’s blouse had moth holes.

“Miss Lou sewed patterns over the holes for her so she could wear it and told her that ‘yu have to tun yu han’ mek fashion,” she told the Observer.

In her tribute to Miss Lou, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller also alluded to the now popular saying. “Miss Lou reminded us of what to do in times of adversity in ‘tun yu han’ mek fashion, and of courtesy in her phrase ‘howdy and tenky,” Simpson Miller said.

She said Miss Lou’s work was about all Jamaicans as she virtually single-handedly reversed the psyche of an entire nation. As a trailblazer, Miss Lou was the first West Indian to earn a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London and the first female black broadcaster on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in the early days of television.

“The government will move with appropriate dispatch to give consideration of how we can further honour her life and the legacy she has bequeathed to us,” the prime minister said, an apparent response to calls for Miss Lou to be made a national hero.

Opposition Leader Bruce Golding said Miss Lou had become the standard for which other performances were judged, as she entertained four generations of Jamaicans all at the same time.

“She did more than entertain us, as she made us understand who we are through her poems and plays. In her songs and dance, we saw ourselves and were better able to understand,” he said.

Professor Nettleford said the UWI finally came to its senses when it awarded Miss Lou the honorary doctor of letters in acknowledgment of the tremendous work which provided research students, both local and foreign, with materials for their theses for what became the Cambridge dictionary of Jamaican English.

He added that Miss Lou continued to be sought after for the use of the people’s language through the rendition of her poems and art of storytelling in Britain, Canada and the United States where West Indians through the Diaspora maintained contact with home.

The sermon was preached by Reverend Dr Byron Chambers, Methodist president, and the service was officiated by some 14 members of the clergy. Dr Chambers noted that in her song Shine up yuh shoes and brush up yuh hair, Miss Lou had been encouraging Jamaicans to accept themselves. He urged Jamaicans to let Miss Lou’s talents inspire them to use their gifts to the glory of God.

The Coke Church Choir, the National Chorale of Jamaica, the Methodist Chorale and the Seventh-day Adventist Chorale performed lively celebratory songs, which included Miss Lou’s favourite hymn All Things Bright And Beautiful.

There was also a cultural rendition from little Sashoka Small, the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) gold medalist who performed Him good to me ca’an done.