Against a backdrop of hymns, prayers, a homily and tributes, photojournalist Clyde Jones was remembered as an outstanding Barbadian, during a funeral service last Friday at St Gabriel’s Episcopal Church in Brooklyn’s East Flatbush community of New York.
The hour-long service for Jones, a pillar of the Barbadian and West Indian immigrant community in the Big Apple who died there recently after a prolonged illness, was attended by fewer than 50 people, mostly Bajans, whose numbers were restricted due to COVID-19 protocols.
Jones’ lens captured the faces of every Barbados leader since Independence; recorded the presence of Queen Elizabeth and two United States presidents – Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton – on Barbados’ soil; captured exciting stage performances of Rihanna, Mighty Gabby, Red Plastic Bag, Mighty Sparrow and a host of other iconic cultural gurus; and placed on film for posterity the joys, dance floor movements and tears of tens of thousands of Bajans and other West Indians at home and in the diaspora.
With Barbados’ top diplomat at the United Nations, Liz Thompson, who is demitting office in a matter of days, and Consul General Mackie Holder among the mourners, eulogist Sharon Bethell said accolades were showered on Jones “as one of the leading Caribbean photojournalists whose work graced the pages” of newspapers, magazines and other publications in and out of Barbados, New York and other places. (TB)
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