Anyone familiar with Kathleen Rebecca Rhoden Powell knew she was the archetypal Jamaican ‘country woman’ who loved family, farming and attending church. That is how relatives and friends remembered her at her thanksgiving service on June 17.

Rhoden, who died in May at age 84, was from Barton district in St Elizabeth. She was a pillar of the community, being a longstanding member of the Glad Tidings Church, where her service took place.

Janet Powell, the sixth of her seven children, remembered her mother as “a very noble person who just did her farming of peanut and sugar cane and kept her garden at home”. The death of her daughter and youngest child in 2017 was a big loss which affected Kathleen Powell greatly.

An only child, she was born in Thornton, St Elizabeth, her mother died when she was an infant. Powell was raised in Siloah and Barton districts respectively by her grandmother and uncle. In her early 20s, she moved to Kingston, found work as a housekeeper and gave birth to five children.

Returning to St Elizabeth, she married Rupert Powell, had two more children and got involved in church and community.

“She was a very jovial person, always encouraging young people. She touched a lot of lives. Anybody who came across Miss Kathleen can attest to the fact if yuh come inna har yard yuh naah guh walk out hungry,” said Janet Powell.

Kathleen Rebecca Rhoden Powell is survived by her husband, six children (a son and five daughters) two stepchildren, 20 grandchildren, 28 great-grandchildren and one great-great grandchild.

Howard Campbell