EDNA Mae Gordon, a direct descendant of George William Gordon, Jamaican national hero, was laid to rest in a mausoleum at Mount Olivet Cemetery in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Saturday, December 7.

Gordon, who danced at her 100th birthday celebration at her home in Louisiana in March this year, was eulogised as a “remarkable woman, strong-willed but kind to a fault, and was very dedicated to her family, relatives, close friends, and the people with whom she worked”.

At the Mass of Christian Burial at Saint Maria Goretti Catholic Church, the reverend Father Earl Gauthreaux said Edna Gordon lived “a wonderful life”, and recalled the standing ovation she received from the congregation when she celebrated Mass on her 100th birthday. He recalled her journey from Jamaica to New York and finally to New Orleans East where she lived the last 10 years of her life.

Edna Mae was born in Morant Bay, St, Thomas, on March 13, 1913, to Thomas Benjamin Gordon and Marie Ducat, a native of Curacao in the Dutch Antilles, who lived briefly in New Orleans before migrating to Jamaica. They had 10 children; Edna was the sixth and last surviving child. She was a direct descendant of George William Gordon, who was executed after the Morant Bay rebellion in 1865. He was proclaimed a national hero of Jamaica on the centenary of his death, and his picture appears on Jamaican currency.

As a child Edna spent a lot of time on her father’s estate in Morant Bay and attended Alpha Academy in Kingston. A young woman seeking her independence, she and her sister Eva moved to Kingston and worked for the Machado Tobacco Company where she assumed the role of production manager. With the passing of her mother she moved to the United States, trained to become a nurse, and worked at the New York State Chronic Disease Hospital. She lived in Orange, New Jersey, for over 35 years.

In 2005 in New Orleans, Edna survived the deadly and most destructive Hurricane Katrina. She was rescued by a helicopter crew from the upper level of her lakefront home hours after her beloved grandson Adolph, now deceased, left her to seek assistance.

She is survived by a son Gilbert Charles: former daughter-in-law Dahlia; granddaughters Candace and Suzette; seven great-grandchildren, nieces Maria Williams (Henry), Caroldean Moore, and Laurice Thompson; close friend Lavern King; a host of other relatives and extended family residing in Jamaica, Egypt, Panama, Russia, and the United States.