Bank officer, Justice of the Peace, world traveller ­— Dorothea Butterfield is proud of all she has achieved.

She never imagined such a future when she was a teenager.

Her family couldn’t afford to send her to high school, so she had to work at 14.

“I worked for tailor Ebenezer Lespere in Hamilton,” said the 83-year-old. “I made jackets and earned five shillings [60 cents by today’s standards] a week.

“It was not a lot of money in those days.”

Half of what she earned was used for her ferry rides to work. She met her future husband, Ashton Butterfield, on one of them.

“We didn’t start dating until I was about 18,” she said. “He was a carpenter and a hard worker. Later, he worked for Lantana.”

They married in 1956 and built a two-bedroomed house for themselves in Sandys, which they shared with her aunt Portia.

When their family grew to include son Michael, they bought some property and built a second house in the parish.

“We called it our rally house,” said Mrs Butterfield. “All our friends and family would come together on a Saturday and do whatever building they could do.

“We didn’t have to pay for that. All we had to do was provide the food for the people to eat.”

Mr Butterfield died in 1986, shortly before their 30th wedding anniversary.

“After my husband died I had no choice but to save my money,” she said. “My son was in school and I had to pay for that.

“I had no intention of remarrying anyone. I did not want to be a slave to any man.”

She worked her way up — from the savings bank department at the post office to the savings department at the Bank of Bermuda, breaking race barriers along the way.

“In 1960, I saw an advertisement that said ‘Bank of Bermuda for Bermudians’ and decided to apply for a job there,” she said

“I took my chances. I went there and asked to see Sir Henry Tucker. I got to see him and he sent me downstairs to ask about a job.”

But when she got there the jobs suddenly vanished.

“They said they had nothing to offer me,” she said.

Later, a porter appeared at the post office asking her to come back to the bank for an interview. Thinking she was being toyed with, she refused to go.

Finally, her post office supervisor called the bank and confirmed that they did want to see her.

She got the job.

Her bank supervisor, Gervase Marson, was good to her and showed her how to calculate interest.

“I had a nice job,” said Mrs Butterfield. “When she left she put my name forward to be in charge of the department. “I was the first woman of colour to have had that opportunity to sit with the big boys for meetings upstairs.”

She stayed with the bank for 29 years and was an officer by the time she retired in 1989.

In 1975 she was made a justice of the peace, and helped with many political elections.

Her last was in 1998, the year the Progressive Labour Party came into power for the first time. She was in charge of one of the stations in Southampton.

“Later, they called and asked me if I wanted to be a returning officer,” she said. “I told them I’d already passed that and to give it to someone else.”

After retirement she went on a world tour. She still keeps a world map on her kitchen wall of the places she visited.

“I did all this in two trips,” she said pointing to a blur of pins on the map. The pins pierce many continents. “One trip took me four months and the next I went for seven weeks.”

She most loved the architecture in Russia.

“During my working life I hadn’t had much time to travel. When you’re working you only get a week or so off, and I would usually go to America where I had family.”

Today, she doesn’t do much travelling as she has problems with her eyes.

Knowing she missed out on high school, she took every educational opportunity she could: courses at the Sixth Form Centre, the Bermuda College’s predecessor; she obtained her General Education Diploma and took Queen’s University courses in Bermuda until the programme was cancelled. The Bank of Bermuda also sent her on various training courses.

Even after retirement she continued to learn through the Seniors’ Learning Centre where she was president for several years.

“My belief is that you can only improve yourself if you do something for yourself,” she said.

She received the Queen’s Certificate and Badge of Honour in 2003 for her work with Bermuda charities.

Today, she keeps a low profile as she’s had some health issues including a stroke in 2004.

Last Thursday, she celebrated her birthday at the annual Christmas party for HSBC Bank of Bermuda retirees at the Fairmont Southampton.

•Lifestyle profiles senior citizens in the community every Tuesday. To suggest an outstanding senior contact Jessie Moniz Hardy: 278-0150 or jmhardy@royalgazette.com. Have on hand the senior’s full name, contact details and the reason you are suggesting them.