The Government has offered to provide an official Funeral for Dame Edris Bird who died on July 19 at the age of 91.
While expressing condolences to Dame Edris’ family, the official Funeral will be “in celebration of Dame Edris Bird’s selfless contribution to nation-building, which has been praiseworthy”, a release from the Office of the Prime Minister said yesterday.
It added: “Dame Edris Bird was quintessentially an educator whose teaching history commenced during the colonial days. She was born in 1929, one decade before the trade union became a lawful entity, in 1939; and, twenty-two years before adult suffrage become the law of the land, in 1951. She matured during an era when the struggle to achieve regional integration and sovereignty had begun to crystalize, and the emphasis on excellence was beginning to be pursued by the most ambitious among us.”
The communiqué said that she will be remembered for her intelligence and wit, her ability to learn and to teach, and for the impact she had on a generation of potential leaders who would help to create the New Jerusalem.
“She taught and helped to shape a former prime minister, a slew of youth who fractured the past to plant new seeds and a modern future, and countless men and women who were determined to scale the hurdles which colonial Antigua and Barbuda erected to prevent excellence.”