Kingsley Thorne was a lot of things to many people, but most will agree that he did things his way.
The popular head of Ebony Models was described as an “icon” in the fashion field by both Malcolm Small and his cousin Paulavette Atkinson, who did the eulogy at Thorne’s funeral service at Western Light Nazarene Church yesterday.
Those who followed Barbados Model Search will always remember his sharp tongue, as he critiqued models on the catwalk and got the reputation as the local Simon Cowell.
Having been at the receiving end of Thorne’s ire before they became good friends, Small said he could attest to the fact that to know Thorne as a person was to love him.
Atkinson used every letter in her cousin’s name to show the packed church exactly the type of person she and so many other mourners knew.
Just as Thorne took control of things in life, he pretty much did the same at his last curtain call.
What was perhaps not known to many was that he was a big Sister Marshall fan. But more important he would play one song for almost an hour after people had left an event he had a hand in.
Thorne seemingly loved Walk Holy so much, that when he was hospitalized and could still communicate, he instructed his mother Judia Thorne-Scott to pay whatever price Sister Marshall asked for her to sing that song. He got Walk Holy and two others.
Pastor of the church Carlisle Isaac used the same Walk Holy as a central theme in his address to remind people how they are called to live.
Isaac told the congregation that to live is to hope and when one waits for that hope, one will walk holy because God is the object of hope.
He said too many young people were going into despair and hopelessness, but added that hopelessness was not an economic or political situation but a spiritual one.
Thorne was laid to rest at Mount Pleasant Memorial Gardens, Pleasant Hall, St Peter. (YB)