Louise Bennett-Coverly (Miss Lou), (born Sept. 7, 1919, Kingston, Jam.

died July 26, 2006, Toronto, Ont.), Jamaican folklorist, poet, and radio and
television personality who , was regarded by many as the mother of
Jamaican culture for her efforts to popularize Jamaican patois and to
celebrate the lives of ordinary Jamaicans. From the 1930s Bennett-Coverly
wrote and recited dialect poems, and in 1942 she published Dialect
Verses, her first poetry collection. After graduating from the Royal Academy
of Dramatic Art in London, she hosted the BBC radio shows Caribbean
Carnival and West Indian Night. She later taught folklore and drama at the
University of the West Indies and served (195963) as director of the
Jamaican Social Welfare Commission. What was perhaps her best-known
book, Jamaica Labrish, a collection of folklore and poetry, appeared in 1966.
Among the many albums she recorded were Jamaican Folk Songs (1954)
and Childrens Jamaican Songs and Games (1957). She delivered highly
popular radio monologues, known as Miss Lous Views, from 1966 to 1982.
She also hosted (197082) a weekly childrens television show, Ring
Ding. Bennett-Coverly was made MBE in 1960. She received the Order of
Jamaica in 1974 and the Jamaican Order of Merit in 2001.

In 1974, she was appointed to the Order of Jamaica. On Jamaicas

Independence Day 2001, the Honorable Mrs. Louise Bennett-Coverly was
appointed as a Member of the Jamaican Order of Merit for her invaluable and
distinguished contribution to the development of the Arts and Culture.
She wrote her poems in the language of the people known as Jamaican
Patois or Creole, and helped to put this language on the map and to have it
recognized as a language in its own right, thus influencing many poets to do
similar things.
In 1986, she appeared as Portia in the 1986 comedy Club Paradise, starring
Robin Williams, Jimmy Cliff and Peter O'Toole.
She died in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on July 26, 2006. A true Jamaican icon,
may her soul rest in peace.
Incidentally, the poems of "Ms Lou" are also my favourite Jamaican poems!
Follow that link to see (and print) them.
Do check the list of famous Jamaicans to see who else have made their mark
on this, our little rock we call Jamaica.