Kirton remembered as a pioneer and live wire

Pews at the St Paul’s An­gli­can Church in San Fer­nan­do were filled with mourn­ers who gath­ered to pay fi­nal trib­utes to cul­tur­al icon Joyce Cyn­thia Kir­ton, a found­ing mem­ber of Les En­fants Dance Com­pa­ny. Among them was San Fer­nan­do May­or Ju­nia Re­grel­lo, San Fer­nan­do East MP Ran­dall Mitchel and for­mer gov­ern­ment min­is­ter Joan Yuille-Williams.

Kir­ton’s niece Hy­acinth Kir­ton-Lewis Rosa­mond, who de­liv­ered the eu­lo­gy, said the woman who even­tu­al­ly gained fame as a dance pi­o­neer was the live wire in the fam­i­ly and even though she was one of ten chil­dren she was al­ways the cen­tre of at­ten­tion, “bril­liant and with a re­mark­able thirst for knowl­edge.”

Rosa­mond said ear­ly on Kir­ton de­vel­oped a love for “lim­ing” and she and her old­er sis­ter Mar­garet used to “strut around San Fer­nan­do” un­til their par­ents put a stop to it.”

She said her aunt nev­er mar­ried, had no chil­dren and “she loved and lost, but sur­vived.”

While many con­sid­ered Kir­ton to be a bold, vo­cal woman and won­dered if she had any fears, she was afraid of feath­ered crea­tures, Rosa­mond re­vealed. How­ev­er, she loved dogs, African art, sewing, Mills and Booms nov­els and col­lect­ing hand­i­craft dolls.

“But her biggest love was for the Les En­fants Dance Com­pa­ny,” she said.

May­or Re­grel­lo said Kir­ton was a ded­i­cat­ed San Fer­nan­di­an who nev­er asked for help for her self but in­stead sought af­ter for the good of oth­ers. Al­so pay­ing trib­ute was San Fer­nan­do East MP Ran­dall Mitchell who re­called meet­ing Kir­ton on the cam­paign trail and be­ing told that she had taught dance to his moth­er and her sis­ters.

Kir­ton was laid to rest at Par­adise Ceme­tery in San Fer­nan­do.

At a memo­r­i­al at the San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tion on Wednes­day night, cul­tur­al trib­utes were paid by Er­ic But­ler, Lucy Reg­is, Avion Crooks, Mar­lon De Bique, The Les En­fants The­atri­cal Com­pa­ny, Ke­ri­na Br­ere­ton-Thomas and Friends, Mori­ba Fran­cis and Leslie Hoyte.

Reporter: Innis Francis

CNC3 Editor
WRITTEN BY

CNC3 Editor

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