Nov 17 farewell for Leonie?
THE funeral service for actress and broadcaster Leonie Forbes is tentatively set for The Church of St Margaret on Old Hope Road in St Andrew on November 17.
Dr Keith Amiel, former husband of Forbes, shared the details with the Jamaica Observer on Wednesday evening.
“The funeral is tentatively set for the The Church of St Margaret in Liguanea at about 12:30 pm to 1:00 pm… The programme will be fulsome with members of the media, theatre, and performing arts represented,” said Dr Amiel, manager of corporate affairs at Caribbean Broilers Group.
Forbes, 85, died in the University Hospital of the West Indies in St Andrew on October 25. No cause of death was given.
A biography posted on the National Library of Jamaica website states that Leonie Evadne Forbes was born on June 14, 1937 and grew up in Kingston as an only child. She attended St George’s Preparatory School, Merrywood Elementary, Mico Practising School, Kingston Senior School, Excelsior College, and Durham College.
Her first job after leaving school was with Sir Philip Sherlock as a typist at the University College of the West Indies. Forbes worked with playwright Barry Reckord, typing his plays and at times accompanying him to the studios of the Government Information Service (now Jamaica Information Service) to watch the recording sessions.
It was there that she got her first exposure to radio. When the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation started in 1955, Forbes became an announcer. She was one of its first voices along with Dennis Hall, Desmond Chambers, Erica Allen, and Beverly Anderson.
Forbes had leading roles in 12 pantomimes and acted in plays such as Sea Mama, Miss Unusual, Old Story Time, and Champagne and Sky Juice. She has also appeared in the films Children of Babylon (1980), Club Paradise (1986), The Orchid House (1991), Milk and Honey (1995), What My Mother Told Me (1995), and Soul Survivor (1995).
With Alma Mock Yen, she wrote The Re-Entry Into Sound, a standard text used to train broadcasters across the Caribbean.
In September 2012 she launched Leonie: Her Autobiography at Little Theatre in St Andrew. The book is a collaboration between Forbes and university lecturer/poet Professor Mervyn Morris.
She was honoured with the Order of Distinction from the Jamaican Government and a Musgrave gold medal from the Institute of Jamaica.
She is survived by two of four children.
