The highly publicised death this past week of Mrs. Olympia Gordon Corrent at age 64, has highlighted another chapter in the extraordinary lives of the descendants of Mazumbo, "alias" Dr. Edgar Fitzgerald Gordon (as he described himself to counteract the calculated manner in which the mainstream white-owned and operated media went out of their way to denigrate outspoken black leaders like himself).

The reason why one would use his or her given name as an alias in place of an assumed name is a noteworthy study in itself; just as mostly everything else is about Dr. Gordon, the revered Freedom Fighter, surgeon and Founder of the organised labour movement in Bermuda.

The name Olympia Gordon, and the very fine tributes carried in the media about her charismatic personality and personal, world-travelling achievements, speak volumes about the insights of the man who named her. And she, I would venture to say, lived up to her name.

Names were meaningful to Dr. Gordon. He once told me he "knighted" at birth the two sons of his marriage. "Beulah" and its symbolism, was the name of his combined residence and surgery at the eastern end of Victoria Street, Hamilton. There is where the historic BWA Petition was hatched, causing so much consternation amongst the powerful and intimidating ruling oligarchy when he took it to their colonial overlords in London praying for a Royal Commission bring relief to "the voteless and voiceless masses" of the Island.

Sadly, it was at "Beulah" that Olympia died of natural causes.

"Beulah" was also the seat of the Executive Committee of the BWA (Bermuda Workers Association) both before and after it spawned the Bermuda Industrial Union. It was while making countless visits to "Beulah" as the youngest member of the Executive that I formed the impression that Olympia was "the apple of her father's eye".

She was the eldest of the other two daughters, Patricia and Pamela born to Dr. Gordon and his partner Mildred Lucille Layne. And as they grew up, not surprisingly as Patricia told the media earlier this week, Olympia was the inspiration behind their highly successful efforts to climb what I called "the greasy pole of politics in Bermuda" the pole on which so much energy was used by the Establishment to thwart ascendency to their father Mazumbo. The three sisters with the unmistakable flair and fluency of Mazumbo, and tenacity of their mother, became achievers in their own right, and I believe Mazumbo would have been immensely proud of them.

Patricia was nine when Dr. Gordon died in 1955 at age 60.

Pamela made history, rising from the rank of a Government Senator to that of Bermuda's first female Premier. She is now retired with the title Dame Pamela Gordon, after her UBP Government and party were toppled by the now ruling PLP Labour party in the sensational 1998 General Election that brought to office Bermuda's second female Premier, the now Dame Jennifer Smith.

Sister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin is the very active and most eloquent Opposition MPs in the House. She is currently Shadow Minister of Works.

As history goes, Bermuda's third female Premier Paula Cox, just ten days in office, voiced the country's condolences over the passing of Olympia Gordon Corrent.

Citing her as part of a politically rich family with a legacy that will live for generations, Premier Cox added, Olympia was considered as one of the members of that special club of female political activists who had made immense contributions to Bermuda and her people, who sacrificed her time and energy to shape and change the course of Bermuda's political landscape.