Gina Morley, All Woman founder, dies
GINA Morley, founding editor of the All Woman magazine — a weekly publication of the Jamaica Observer — has died.
Morley, an attorney-at-law, passed away on May 3 in her homeland Bahamas, after a battle with cancer.
The 55-year-old’s death has shocked members of the local and regional journalism community who remembered her for championing the cause of women and children’s rights through the All Woman magazine and partnerships with regional media houses such as the Guardian Radio and The Nassau Guardian newspaper.
Long-time friend Marcia Thwaites remembered Morley as someone who was very friendly and totally in love with Jamaica that she made it her second home.
“She was a Bahamian who came to Jamaica in the 80s for school to do law and totally fell in love with Jamaica. She ended up working at the Jamaica Observer as their legal counsel and she founded the All Woman magazine. My fondest memory of her is that she totally loved Jamaica so every opportunity she could get to come to Jamaica she did. She even sent her daughters back here to school at Hampton.,” Thwaites said.
Thwaites said that from her time of meeting Morley, through her association with the St Martin De Porres Catholic Church in Gordon Town, she always spoke about her appreciation for the friendliness and sincerity of the Jamaican people.
Thwaites shared that she was very passionate about women empowerment, helping women understand their legal rights and attended the the UNs Fourth Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995, where she met Hilary Clinton.
A key feature of her desire to help women was her voluntarism with Woman Inc for over 10 years, where she advised women who were victims of domestic violence of their legal rights.
Said Thwaites: “She was very excited about the new frontiers and the things that were happening for women. I will miss her friendliness and her visits. She would visit and want to do Jamaican things. She loved the Jamaican food and the Jamaican people. I will have to reach out to her children as they are still young. Her eldest daughter is at medical school in Canada, the other is just beginning university and her son is still in high school. I will have to continue the friendship through her children.”
Morley is survived by her three children and sister Tina.