The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune

The passing of Edna Lenora Lowe (according to Death Notice published May 21, 2020) at age 94 years marks the end of an era in the history of the Registrar General’s Department, where she was the last survivor of what was referred to in the old days as “the Lily White Registry”.

The deceased recounted coming from her native settlement of Gray’s, Long Island in the 1940’s to the metropolis of Nassau on “The Frolic” mail-boat, landing her first job as a Sales Clerk in Mr. D. A. Nottage’s Dry Goods Store on Bay Street named “Arties”.

She recalled one day meeting Mr. Edmund Stuart, an Auditor in the Audit Department and a member of the Public Service Commission and enquiring of him if there were any vacancies in the Civil Service. He confirmed that there was a suitable position in the Registrar General’s Office for a female to transcribe deeds and documents lodged for recording by the public. After providing a specimen of her handwriting and passing all other requisite tests, she was hired.

Mrs Lowe remained in the Recording Office (as it was then popularly called) for 50 years, with a hiatus of about three years when she accompanied her husband, Cherokee Sound, Abaco native James Wheelock Lowe to Andros where he was gainfully employed as the Manager of a resort there.

On her initial entry into the public service in 1945, she worked under Registrars Mervyn Johnson, Arthur Byrnes, Walter S. Chaney, Patrick D. Fleming, Leonard J. Knowles, James Liddell and, of course, Newton Clyde Roberts, the highly revered and extremely competent first non-lawyer to be appointed Registrar General by a Special Resolution of the House of Assembly. Other Registrars under whom she worked in later years were Mr. Prescott, Sylvia Bonaby, Nathaniel Dean, Emily Rodgers, Sterling Quant and lastly Mrs. Kelphine Cunningham. Her co-workers of the 40’s and 50’s were Hilda Prudden and Geraldine Murdoch (Actg Asst. Registrars), Marie Kemp, Nellie Maura, Winifred Maura, Pauline Curry, Jennie Key, Doris Pinder, Bridget Higgs, Dorothy Albury, Kathleen Roberts, Audrey Saunders, Yolanda Roberts and sister Edwina Malone, Mizpah Pearce and Queenie Stuart, (Mrs. Edmund Stuart).

The first non-white (coloured person) to be employed in the Registrar General’s Office was Fred Phillips from Barbados, who was seconded from the Police Force in 1960.

In reminiscing about the good-old-days, she always remarked how employees then were truly civil servants, i.e. civil in their attitude toward their work and servants to the public, who took pride in their job. Efficiency and accuracy were the mantra for the staff.

When the system was upgraded from handwriting Deeds in Books to microfilming, she was put in charge of the new microfilm section, which she operated in a dark-room with the new technological machine. She was featured in the local newspapers explaining the new recording process in 1956. Today, Deeds are scanned in the digital age. Her ante-meridien schedule was to microfilm the Deeds after they were inspected and approved by the Examiners. Her post-prandial assignment was to type Satisfactions for Mortgages on an old manual typewriter. I can see her now, sitting at the window on the 6th floor of the General Post Office building on East Hill Street with the spectacular view of the ships in Nassau Harbour and Paradise Island to the North.

Mrs. Lowe used to type quite adroitly by using a method that we call “the Columbus System”, i.e. you look for the keys, find them and land on them. She was an expert at it.

Her very legible handwriting can still be seen in the permanent records of the Registry in the following Books – Y.16, Z,16, K.17, V.17, Y.17, B.21, L.21, O.21 and in Wills Book M. 19 pages 139 to 219.

Her penmanship can also be seen in the indices of volume 593 to volume 822. Her calligraphy is etched perpetually in the General Index for years 1957-58 comprising 758 pages; in the general index for the year 1961 aggregating 3,597 pages and in the General Index for the year 1962 totalling 3,635 pages.

Mrs. Lowe’s place in the history of the Registrar General’s Department is “well-founded”.

Lowe by name, but not low by nature as the saying goes, she was very kind and thoughtful. Many can attest to her thoughtfulness. She remembered birthdays and anniversaries and, of course, Christmas holidays, never failing to telephone and wish you a happy birthday and a Merry Christmas. I could always look forward to a call on my B-day and receiving a Christmas card from her.

Edna Lenora Lowe was a decent, respectable white Bahamian, as well as a dedicated, conscientious and diligent civil servant and that is how I shall forever remember her.

To her daughter, Mrs. Sandra Key whom I know and to the entire Lowe family, I proffer my sincere condolences.

GEORGE L L HEASTIE

Nassau,

June 3, 2020