Retired nurse Lois Scott of South Shore, Southampton is the matriarch of a family of achievers and the centre of influence and admiration of a wide circle of friends and relatives.

She seemed ecstatic when many of them crowned her and sang Happy Birthday to her in four or five different lively ways Sunday at an 80th birthday tea party given her at the Bonefish Inn, Dockyard. And she lit up when her great-grandson, six-year-old Jayden Coleman sang solos to her while strumming his guitar.

Others whose lives she has touched over the decades, freely expressed gratitude to Mrs. Scott. There was a Powerpoint presentation focusing largely on the exciting life she had growing up at Sinky Bay, Southampton, just east of the now demolished Carlton Beach Hotel, Southampton. She was the second girl in the Williams family of 11 children. Her surviving siblings are Hillary, Warren and Morty Williams, Kathleen Ford, Barbara Scott and Michelle Williams Jones, who makes her home in the US. The family are best known for their public performances and recordings as "The WarrenAirs" Choral group, and as devout workers in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Lois is a first cousin of the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Hon. Stanley Lowe as well as former Premier Hon. Alex Scott. Ex-Senator L. Milton Scott is one of her six children.

Other well-known children are Eugene Scott, retired administrator of Government's HIP Insurance Programme; Pamela Coleman, Reading Specialist at T. Neville Tatem School; Lynn Scott, who is carving a name for himself as a Middle School teacher in Miami; Judy Scott on staff at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital and Derek Scott.

One feature about Mrs. Scott was how as a married woman, raising her own family, with some of her own children attending college and university, she was inspired to attend college herself. She qualified as a nurse, worked six years at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, then for the next 25 years at St. Brendan's Psychiatric Hospital or Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute (MAWI) as it is now called.

When she was about to retire, she was singled out to develop for St. Brendan's a pilot scheme aimed at re-instituting back into the community mentally challenged behaviour clients in homes away from the hospital. Her programme proved so successful that there are now at least 12 such homes, all functioning well.

Mrs. Scott keeps extremely busy in her so-called retirement years. She's a member of the Southampton Seventh-day Adventist Church, being a Cradle Roll Teacher, Youth Leader, Camp Director; choir member and a Pathfinder Director (the church's equivalent of the Boy Scout and Girl Guide Movement.

Also, she's craft director for the Seniors Sunshine Club at the church. On a weekly basis as a member of YouthNet she wends her way to Somerset Primary School to mentor students; and she's active in the Seniors Learning Centre at Bermuda College.

Lois became the wife of Leslie Scott in 1948. He owned and operated a taxi service. Their 45-year union produced four sons, two daughters, 12 grandchildren, a like number of great-grands and one great-great-grand. Many reside abroad, and one, Gyani Coleman is stationed with the US Navy in Bahrain in the Middle East.

The sparkplug behind the big birthday bash was grand daughter Eshe Coleman Marrow. Her fabulous marriage to her American husband took place in the garden at her Grandmother Lois' residence, "Scott-Willa" on the hill overlooking the South Shore ocean. From Philadelphia she coordinated the celebration with her mother Pamela and Aunt Judith Scott.

Eshe is a specialist nurse in Philadelphia. She came home for the party as did her uncle Lynn Scott who teaches in Miami.