Many accomplished women, we are sure, were overshadowed in life by the men whom they married, their light hidden under a bushel because of their husbands’ outsized profile, national or international.

Those who knew Mrs Sonia Mills — widow of the late Ambassador Donald Mills, a man regarded by his many admirers as Jamaica’s greatest diplomat — might agree with us that she was one such wife.

Mrs Mills died on September 15, 2025, at 86 years old, never coming close to attaining the prominence of her famous husband, who is perhaps best remembered for his role as Jamaica’s permanent representative to the United Nations and the first Jamaican to chair its powerful Security Council. He was also noted for his outstanding public service.

But, as an educator, Mrs Mills — born Sonia Lee McPherson on September 6, 1939, in Annotto Bay, St Mary — gained a reputation in local and international spheres as an advocate and supporter of the arts, women’s issues, and inclusive national development.

She attended Wolmer’s Girls’ School in Kingston and later studied politics at Sciences Po, the internationally acclaimed Paris-based public university. She started her journalism career in London before moving to
The Gleaner newspaper in Jamaica.

Mrs Mills later joined the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (JBC), now Television Jamaica. She did a stint at the United Nations in New York and later worked with the International Women’s Tribune Centre, an organisation focused on women’s issues.

Back in Jamaica, she became bureau chief of the Rome-based Inter Press Service (IPS) Third World news agency which received significant support from the UN in its quest to balance the one-way North-South flow of information in order to tell the story of developing nations from their point of view.

Mrs Mills worked for media production company Mediamix and, in the 1960s, also began writing radio plays, notably Life in Hopeful Village with the late Mrs Elaine Perkins, and later her own series in Jamaica and in The Bahamas.

She collaborated with good friend Mr Trevor Rhone on the 1967 play It’s Not My Fault Baby and, with husband Don, on the Little Theatre Movement national pantomime Anancy and Doumbey, starring Mrs Louise “Miss Lou” Bennett and Mr Randolph “Ranny” or “Mass Ran” Williams.

For decades she was the main local producer for Macmillan Publishers’ educational books and content, working on projects such as the Reggae Readers series, now used in primary and preparatory schools.

She also contributed to Rise Up Singing, the autobiography of Jamaican-born bass-baritone opera singer Sir Willard White; Ray Chen’s The Shopkeepers: Commemorating 150 Years of the Chinese in Jamaica; and
The Story of Wolmer’s Girls’ School.

At the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica, Mrs Mills oversaw the restoration of Hope Gardens; lent invaluable support to the Culture, Health, Arts, Sports, and Education (CHASE) Fund; and was a founding volunteer member of the Marcus Garvey Liberty Hall restoration effort.

One of her most lasting contributions was her creation of the Mary Seacole Foundation recognising the life and work of the pioneering Jamaican-born British nurse and businesswoman, famed for her work during the Crimean War in the 1850s and for publishing the first autobiography written by a black woman in Britain.

We celebrate the life of Mrs Sonia Lee McPherson Mills.