There's one gifted lady in Bermuda who ordinarily can be expected as a matter of course to undertake what esver she does in an extraordinary manner.

She's Constance (Connie) Ridley Smith, a Bermuda college lecturer, a prolific author, publisher, the minister of music at Allen Temple AME Church, Somerset, as well as organist at Southampton Seventh-day Adventist Church. And in between being a wife and mother of two grown girls, she teaches music.

Mrs. Smith was one of the authors the Bermuda College chose to highlight its "Meet the Author" series of public readings and book signings. She seized the opportunity to launch not just one but six substantial books she has written. And at the same time she gave a most illuminating lecture on her iconic uncle Greg Ridley, who has earned his place in the art world as The Master of Copper Tooling.

The now deceased Greg Ridley, Jr., was born in 1925. He and his sister Willie Kate Ridley Jackson, who was a year younger, were protégées of the renowned Aaron Douglas, whom students of black history will know was the painter associated with the Harlem Renaissance. Greg majored in art, while Kate was interested in watercolours. She majored in history, later earning a degree at Fisk University and her Master's degree in library service from Atlanta University.

What is significant is that Kate, who is now retired and resides in her native Tennessee, teamed up with her niece Constance and co-authored the captivating, brilliantly illustrated biography aptly named Greg Ridley, Master of Copper Tooling.

Niece Constance hails from Nashville, Tennessee. She became thoroughly "onionised", when she and a dashing young Bermudian Larry Smith accidentally met while students at Tennessee State University. That was nearly 30 years ago when they became husband and wife. They are parents of Ashley Cherie, 24, and Courtney Amber, 20.

The Smiths have their own publishing house for their books known as Breakthrough Communications. They do all of the art work design and layout using Bermudian talent at home. The printing is contracted abroad.

Among the books at Connie's launching was her Mothers of Hope series that include Mothers of Love, Mothers of Faith, Mothers of Wisdom as well as Nothing New Under the Sun, Lessons on Living from Women of the Bible. And for children who love books, she has written For the Riding Game, Jason, Jersey #12 and Everybody's Doing It, all separate books from her series Stories That Teach series.

Mrs. Smith is an avid student of Old Testament scriptures. Most of her examples cited are drawn from the lives of women in the Old Testament from earliest times, hoping to become the mother of Jesus. However, she is candid enough to relate from own personal experiences growing up as a young girl in a Christian home in Tennessee; and later in life as a teacher and an experience in the delivery room while giving birth to her first child.