A staunch Progressive Labour Party supporter has been celebrated by the Premier as someone who “dedicated her time and efforts to the upliftment of her fellow Bermudians from all walks of life”.

Sheila Burrows was the widow of Reginald Burrows, a PLP MP for Southampton East from 1968 to 2003 and a senator until 2005. He died in 2017.

The couple came to the rescue when the party was at risk of losing Alaska Hall, the PLP headquarters on Court Street in Hamilton, by mortgaging their home.

In a ceremony last May, the building was renamed in memory of Mr Burrows.

Mrs Burrows helped unveil the sign honouring her husband and spoke at the gathering of her husband’s dedication to the PLP.

In her roles, which included supervising the Government’s Department of Social Insurance as well as the Department of Corrections’ Treatment of Offenders Board, Mrs Burrows sought to elevate others.

She served on the board of the Department of Child and Family Services and on the fund-raising committee of the PLP.

She described her desire to provide encouragement and support to young people in a 2020 profile in The Royal Gazette — saying she could identify with those who struggled to find their way.

“I came from a family of schoolteachers but growing up I did not want to be an educator myself,” she said. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I couldn’t find myself.”

Mrs Burrows was raised in the Mullet Bay neighbourhood of St George’s and attended East End Primary, The Berkeley Institute, and Wilberforce University in Ohio — an historically Black institution also attended by her husband.

The couple were keen travellers and regulars at their Wilberforce class reunions.

She was prominent in the Richard Allen African Methodist Episcopal Church in St George’s, followed by Zion AME Church after she married and moved to Southampton.

Mrs Burrows is the mother of Tracey Burch-Moore, Trina Burch-Bean, Zakiyah Talib-Bey and Christopher Burrows; and grandmother of Algernon “AJ” Jackson, Sabur Burrows, Hakim Bey and Malikah Bey.

In a tribute on Sunday, which would have been her 88th birthday, David Burt said: “On behalf of the Progressive Labour Party Executive, Central Committee, Caucus and members, we pay tribute to Mrs Burrows, affectionately known as Aunt Sheila, for her lifelong dedication to our party and the people of Bermuda.”

• Sheila Adele Burrows, a Progressive Labour Party stalwart, was born on October 8, 1935. She died on October 2, 2023, aged 87