IN the short space of one week Bermuda suffered the loss of two of its eminent retired educators in the persons of 101-year-old Mrs. Elsie Gertrude Bascome of Somerset and Mrs. Edna Louise Jackson Thomas, aged 94, of Paget.

They were both friends and colleagues, and during their long and dedicated professional careers they headed their respective schools and were active figures in their churches and communities.

People from all walks of life attending Mrs. Bascome's funeral at Allen Temple AME Church, and the funeral for Mrs. Thomas at Grace Methodist Church on North Shore, Pembroke, were fulsome in expressing through words and music their gratitude.

Mrs. Thomas was born on July 18, 1910, to the late Jabez Walter Jackson and the late Catherine Gibbons Taylor Jackson. Edna was the oldest of five Jackson siblings. She liked to refer to herself as a "North Shore girl", having lived on North Shore, Devonshire from birth until about age 39.

She was married to the late Easton Stanley Thomas, who migrated to Bermuda from Guyana (formerly British Guiana) and was a leading sports writer and personality. The union produced two children, Stanley and Edna.

Edna began her teaching career in1926 under the Misses Adele and Ida Tucker at Paget Glebe. She was educated at North Village School under Mr. Rufus Stovell; the Berkeley Preparatory School under Miss Rosalie Hinson and the Berkeley Institute under Mr. George DaCosta. She was among the first Bermuda 'girls' to be sent on two-year Government scholarships to Shortwood Teachers' Training College in Jamaica.

Upon her return to Bermuda she taught both general subjects and music at Paget Glebe, Central School, Temperance Hall, where she was principal. She was at Ord Road School from 1947 until 1975, when she said with some lament, "they retired me!"

Although out of the classroom after a half-century of service, her love of teaching and of children was still evidenced up to the time of her passing. She was warmly greeted wherever she went.

Evidence of her desire to give them a well-rounded education was combined with her own determination and stubborn nature and she defied specific instructions of the director of Education against the teaching of Black History.

She made a point every Friday afternoon to teach her sixth standard about the contributions made to society by such black people as the scientist George Washington Carver and concert artist Marion Anderson.

Edna was a pianist of note, organist, choir director and music teacher. Her love of music began at an early age, cultivated by her Aunt Amy Jackson, who taught her to play the piano from age seven. Before she turned eight she played her first service at Grace Methodist Church.

Her feet could not reach the pedals and her sister Liz had to pump the bellows for her to play. Music continued to be a most important part of her life. She enjoyed training choirs and individual voices for school and regular Sunday morning services, as well as such special presentations and cantatas as John Steiner's Crucifixion.

Mrs. Thomas was choir director and organist at Grace and Cobb's Hill Methodist Churches. In 1993 she retired from Cobb's Hill, but continued at Grace until December 2002, at age 92. She loved to serve out of the goodness of her heart, and had to be persuaded to accept from the Governor of Bermuda the Queen's Certificate and Badge of Honour in 1994 for church and community service.

The Pastor of Grace Church, the Rev. Allan Walker, conducted the funeral service for Mrs. Thomas. The Rt. Rev. Bishop Vernon G. Lambe, a family friend, participated. The combined choirs of Grace and Cobb's Hill led the singing.

Tributes were voiced by nephew Stuart Hayward, his sister Sylvia Hayward-Harris, Elder Earlston DeSilva, Esther Bean; also former student barrister-at-law Marc Telemaque and the Permanent Secretary of Education, Michelle Kaldhun, on behalf of the Department of Education. The obituary on behalf of the family was submitted by LaVerne Lau.

Her son, E. Stanley Thomas, and daughter Edna Simmons and a host of grandchildren, great-grands, nieces and nephews survive Mrs. Thomas.

MRS. Elsie Gertrude Bascome was a teacher in every sense of the word, in and out of the classroom, by the way she talked and even walked. She was most philosophical, poetic, and had a keen sense of freely imparting from her profound font of knowledge about people she personally knew with roots going well back into the 19th century.

She was one of the first to join the Bermuda Union of Teachers when it was founded in 1919 by the late Rev. Tobitt, Rev. Rufus Stovell and Miss Adele Tucker.

This writer knew from personal observation of Mrs. Bascome in Sunday school and at literary and social gatherings how she loved to give what she called "food for thought".

"We are not here to dream, to drift, we have hard work to do and loads to lift," she would remind her listeners with a smile. One of her quick rejoinders was: "Yes, there are many things we must remember in life, but there is also a lot we must forget."

And she was fond of saying: "Don't let your parents down. They brought you up!"

Elsie was born on August 9, 1903, the fourth of the four sons and four daughters of Henry T. Cann and his wife Mary of Somerset. The Canns were pillars in the community and prominent members of the AME Church.

Her father was a highly skilled engineer who trained in the Dockyard, and Elsie knew his history as if it was written on the back of her hand. Among other things, he was a leading Oddfellow, who helped establish the annual Somerset v St.George's Cup Match. He was the man who placed the order and sent to England the specifications for the now priceless Cup.

She also proudly related how her father gained distinction being the engineer who in 1904 upgraded Gibbs Hill Lighthouse for the first time, from the system that had been original operating from May, 1,1846. Also he was the man who installed the four-face clock in the tower of the Loyal Irresistible Lodge at Manchester Street in Somerset. At age seven Elsie attended the one-room school known as St. James Church School with Mr. William Perinchief as headmaster. Those were the days of the slate pencil. She later attended Sandys Grammar School under Mr. C.A. Isaac-Henry. It was at that same school, at age 18, she commenced her long teaching career. Three years later she was appointed principal of the first Government school in Southampton East now known as Heron Bay School.

In 1929 she resigned her position to marry Richard Bascome and establish the first family home in Smith's Parish. They later moved to Somerset where he established Westover Farm, a business now carried on by their son, Richard, Jr.

When Mrs. Bascome returned to the classroom, she was asked to teach at Southampton Glebe School with responsibility for the elder children in the fourth and fifth grades as well as the entering class. She rounded out her 39 years at Glebe.

The pastor, the Rev. Betty L. Furbert-Woolridge, conducted Mrs. Bascome's funeral at Allen Temple AME Church in Somerset. AME Presiding Elder Malcolm Eve described her as having exemplified Christian womanhood in a faithful and inspirational manner.

Mrs. Dalton Tucker, retired educator and former principal of Glebe eulogised Mrs. Bascome as an excellent, loving, sympathetic teacher, whose interest in the 'whole' child embraced the parents and guardians as well.

Senate Opposition Leader Kim Swan, a former student, called Mrs. Bascome his second mother whose interest in his welfare extended to her last days.

Granddaughter Karen Clemons spoke of her intense interest in cultivating among her family and people in general, purity in body, mind and spirit. She referred to her sense of history and arts which she expressed in the kitchen, Sunday school and wherever she discoursed in private and public.

Mrs. Bascome's only daughter, Barbara Clemons, has followed in her footsteps as an educator in Dayton, Ohio, where she has lived for some 40 years. Barbara was accompanied to Bermuda for the funeral by her husband Willie Clemons, Jr., and more than a dozen grandchildren and great grands.Also surviving are Mrs. Bascome's sons, Bryson and Richard, Jr.; grandchildren Karen, twins Lawrence and Lorraine, and Kevin Clemons; Richard 111 and Ian Bascome; Jill and Neil Bascome and also great grands Kristen, Kelsey, Adalis and Jarod Clemons, Xhosi Bascome and Zoe Cailes, as well as a host of nieces, other relatives and friends.

Our photos show: Mrs. Elsie Bascome (above left) as she appeared just before celebrating her 100th birthday and Mrs. Edna Thomas at the organ in Grace Methodist Church, where she began playing at age seven and continued during the rest of her 94 years