Daisy Elizabeth Powell was born to Julia Edinborough and Frank Wyatt on 20th July, 1924 in the parish of St. Anne, Sandy Point, St. Christopher and Nevis, The West Indies. She was the third child of five children.

In her youth, before discovering her great love of teaching, she worked diligently along side her mother tending to their farm animals and vegetable garden. They also spent long hours making candies, cakes, soups and stews for their tiny store, to help augment the family's small income.

She also had a talent for sewing, following in the footsteps of her mother as a professional seamstress. Through all of this, she still excelled in school, both in sports and in academics. Tragedy struck when she contracted polio and nearly died.

As a result, she missed almost an entire year of schooling; yet at the tender age of fourteen (14), she was asked to tutor her peers, having passed (13) GCE's including needlepoint and Art.

Just out of high school, she began to study nursing with her cousin, nurse Luvina Carey, a Cunningham Hospital, St. Kitts. But due to family obligations, a close friend of hers left for England to study nursing in her place. Once that friend died during the war as a nurse's aid, and the realisation she hated the sight of blood, Mrs. Powell quickly turned her interest back to teaching.

Before long, she won a scholarship to study teaching for one year at Spring Garden College in Antigua. After successfully completing the course with honours, she became a well known teacher at the local Catholic parochial school which she established.

There were about fifty students with Mrs. Powell and her two assistants. She stayed there for about two years. Her excellent reputation spread and very soon she was giving private lessons to the children of St. Kitts community leaders, doctors, lawyers and other influential people throughout the island.

In 1947, she started her own private school on Downing Street, Sandy Point, and was there for about two years until she left St. Kitts for Canada. She completed one year of Teacher's College in Toronto, Canada.

In June, 1949, she found herself, at the age of 25, bound for Bermuda, after having flown from Canada and just barely catching the last boat, The Newlson out of New York to Bermuda...thanks to the assistance of the late Helen Somersall, a Central School deputy headmistress of that time.

There began her three years of teaching at the Purvis Primary School, Cedar Hill, Warwick, under headmistress Cora Scott-Gayle. Also during that time, she met and married Howard "Hope" Powell of Cedar Hill (deceased January 1999). They have one child, Marcelle Clamens.

After a year of marriage, she and her family moved to their new home located at Friswell's Hill, Devonshire. Mrs. Powell started a small school in her tiny kitchen in 1954 with four or five students. She received much encouragement from her friends Cora Scott-Gayle, the late Dr. Yvonne Blackett and the late Dame Marjorie Bean.

Mrs. Powell spent long hours teaching by day and sewing for individuals and wedding parties by night, seven days a week. After many years of hard work her little school grew to number approximately 150 children - often having a long waiting list.

The school was so well recognised, her students were placed in whatever class Mrs. Powell recommended for them, once they transferred to the government schools around the island.

Her students were between the ages of three and seven and sometimes older. Over the years, her two main assistants were Mrs. Rita Martin and Mrs. Joy Flood.

Powell's Nursery, which was famous all over Bermuda, spawned thousands of students, many of whom became doctors, lawyers and leaders within Bermuda's small community. In later years, she took enormous pleasure in seeing or hearing about the successes her students achieved.

Mrs. Cathy Bassett (headmistress of the Elliott Primary School) pointed out that when she took a survey at her school, more that half of the Elliott school teachers had been taught by Mrs. Powell - including Mrs. Bassett.

A number of her students remember her as a thorough but very strict teacher of the old school. She was always willing to sacrifice many afternoons and evenings in order to ensure her students clearly understood their lessons. Her concerts on television (ZBM) with "Aunty Nell" and at various sites around Bermuda became a must see opportunity. Her concerts were performed to standing room only audiences who were extremely enthralled to hear small children recite long memory verses, as well as sing and dance.

She also had fabulous school picnics on many of the island's beaches and happily provided free ice cream, cake, and drink and watermelon for all those people who attended them.

There was a kind side to her as well. It was not surprising to find out she was feeding or clothing children and families that had no financial means. She would even, at times, forfeit some students' school fees so that they would not miss school. In her eyes, her students became her children and she was fully dedicated to educating them since she sincerely felt an educated child would become a useful citizen of the community.

Throughout her teaching experience, she also successfully tutored many adults.

As well as being a teach, wife and amateur gardener, sowing her own vegetables in 1968, she unofficially adopted her sister's grandchild, Don Wyatt, when he was a year old until his death in June 1999. She was very proud to become a Bermudian on 29th August 1980.

Many years earlier, she was an active member of Grace Methodist Church, North Shore, having also participated as the lead soprano in the church choir.

In her last years, she lovingly embraced a new church family at the Anglican Christ Church in Devonshire around August 1999.

She claimed to know every old hymn and could be heard jubilantly singing along with her church family every Sunday without fail. Going to church became the focal point of her last years with us.

In light of her true love of music, we take great joy in calling this occasion a celebration in honour of her extraordinary life. Her entire personal life was fraught with tremendous struggles, but her strength of character, courage and diligence shone through and prevailed.

She is sadly missed by her daughter, Marcelle Clamens, son-in-law Michael Clamens, her grandchildren Michelle, Anthony and Michaela Clamens, as well as her great grandson Micah.

She is also sadly missed by her godchild Cheryl Martin, her church family and numerous other relatives and friends.