THE last of the colourful front-line Three Patros has been laid to rest. In this case we refer to Patro Vormit George Ford (nee Fortes), who with his wife, Kathleen Williams Ford, owned and operated for nearly 20 years Ford's New World Bakery on Glebe Road in Pembroke.

Patro the baker passed away a week ago, at age 74, three days after his popular niece Jeanette (Smoochie) Williams succumbed to a long fight against asthma. Their funerals were held this week, four days apart in separate services at Southampton Seventh-day Adventist Church.

The services were aptly termed 'celebrations', replete with soul-stirring congregational singing, renditions by choirs, individuals, both choral and instrumental, poetry written for the most part by family members, and liturgical dancing.

The foregoing was hardly surprising, considering that the William Family, rooted in Sinky Bay, Southampton and headed by Warren Williams of the famous Warrenairs, is certainly one of the most musical families around.

Back to the Three Patros. Besides the baker, there was the baker's son Patro (Tony) Ford. At age 35, he was tragically killed in a hit-and-run motor accident in Shelly Bay on May 23, 1996. Tony was dubbed The Black Bermudian Indian, who became a legend through his participation in the Heritage Day Parades, wearing his authentic Indian feathers atop his thoroughbred Tennessee Walker Horse (pictured above).

There has always been something out of the ordinary associated with the Patros. The baker's father, Antoine Patro Fortes, arrived in Bermuda aboard a whale schooner sailing from his homeland in the Cape Verde Islands, a Portuguese settlement off the coast of Senegal, West Africa. That was in 1903, when Antoine was 17 years old. He was a deckhand aboard the whaler when it put into the harbour off Tucker's Town for repairs.

Patro the first instantly fell in love with Bermuda, and along with five other crew, they jumped ship and became settlers. Antoine fathered eight children, the baker being the seventh.

Now that the male Patros have passed on, the title with a gender change, has been passed on to one of his daughters, Patrice Fortes-Smith. Patrice seemingly has inherited some of her grandfather's adventurous instincts.

She is a heritage-conscious mother of a 14-year-old daughter, Brittany Patrice. A legal secretary in one of the major law firms, she has made some interesting discoveries about her roots during two trips to Cape Verde Island, aside from visits to other parts of Africa.

"I went to the small island with a translated name of Our Lady of the Rock where my grandfather was born, found his birth records, and the fact that when his mother died on May 22, 1910, she left two sons, one of whom was Patro, who had settled in Bermuda, and another then aged 14."

Patrice tracked down the latter's family. She intercepted a 27-year-old cousin by the name of John Fortes (the original Portuguese spelling of the surname, which Patro had Bermudianised by deed poll in 1989 to mean Ford). The cousin shares the name of one of her two brothers, John (Buddy) Ford. The cousin's father, aged 76, was known as Patro Anthony.

Patrice also discovered some tragic coincidences. One, that her father's mother had died on May 22, 1910; that her grandfather, Patro the first, died on May 23, 1949; and Patro 'Tony' was killed on May 23, 1996.

Back to Patro the baker. He worked for many years alongside his Portuguese-speaking immigrant father. He attended Heron Bay School. His marriage to Kathleen Esther Williams of Sinky Bay produced six children, Gaynell, a nurse at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital; John (Buddy) Ford, the Head Nurse in Government's Prison Service and currently voted Nurse of the Year; also Russ (Buddy), who operates the A-Fordable Massage and Therapy Clinic; the late 'Tony' and daughter Melony Ford-Douglas, who lives in Florida with her husband and two children.

Patro the baker had his own little farm where he kept goats, horses, cows, a monkey, rabbits and dogs. He was a lover of country and western music. He served for many years as a 'gear person' for the Southampton Rangers Football Team, faithfully transporting players in his taxi to their Sunday games.

Patro was baptised in 1970 at Jobson Cove, Warwick and became a member of the SDA Church here he served as an usher.

Our picture shows the family of Patro the baker (above left)as they gathered for his funeral service. His wife Kathleen stands between her sons John (Buddy) and Russ; daughter Melony Ford-Douglas of Florida; daughter Patrice Fortes-Smith and husband Bob Smith; Llewellyn Gomes, who came from the US for the funeral, and Gene Butterfield.

SMOOCHIE, or Veronica Jeanette Williams (pictured left), was eulogised as a 'tomboy' at her funeral on Tuesday. But, in fact, she was the ring leader of a group of high achievers who grew up to become leaders in many different spheres of life in the community.

They were born and bred at Sinky Bay, Southampton long before the landmark Sonesta Beach Hotel situated on the western end of the bay was thought of.

Veronica was born on January 18, 1951, second eldest of the nine children of Norma Veronica Williams-Outerbridge and the late Elcana Spence. She died in hospital on February 7, three days before her uncle, Patro Ford the baker. Their separate funerals at the Southampton Seventh-day Adventist Church, were spirited, hers lasting more than two and a half hours.

Highlights of her life were recaptured for mourners by three of her cousins as well as in a Precious Moments audio-visual production by the Alpha Memorial Chapel Funeral Home of which her first cousin, Doreen Williams, is the director.

Cousin Pamela Coleman, a specialist at the Ministry of Education, summed it up when she described Smoochie as a fun-loving person with a zest for life.

"She was a tomboy, a very athletic person who excelled in sports, particularly in baseball at the Bermuda Institute. She also attended Southampton Glebe School and Sandys Secondary. She was artistic, enjoyed dancing and hosting parties."

Also, growing up, she was as avid a fisherman as any, who delighted in digging her own bait, cockworms at low tide at Sinky Bay. She also showed her teenaged peers how to catch crabs, hunt down suckrocks, swim and play games. She was trained by her late uncle Patro how to drive and operate heavy machinery.

Her expertise at holding 'cook outs' and preparing gourmet meals on short order, was one of the foundations for her when she grew up to own and operate her own restaurant, Smoochie's Paradise, in the Lightbourne Hardware Building on the main road in Southampton.

Earlier she was a chef at the Windjammer Restaurant before it became the Henry VIII Restaurant, situated on the hillside overlooking Sinky Bay.

Cooking, however, proved to be the end that undermined her health, causing her to become a chronic asthmatic, spending frequent and long bouts in hospital.

In 2003 Smoochie committed her life fully to Christianity and became active in the Devonshire SDA Church. She is survived by her only child, Mrs. C. Dionne Robinson, grandchildren Kelli, Colfield Mark III, and Marcus Robinson, as well as her mother Norma Outerbridge, stepfather Charles Outerbridge, sisters Tammy Bremar, Norma Gene Outerbridge, Wendy Brangman and Lori Lynn Hill, brothers Carlton 'Collie' and Charles Williams, Dicky 'Fish' and Andre (Chonka) Outerbridge.

Veronica's sisters and two cousins comprised the all-female pallbearers out of the church, while brothers and cousins did the honours to the grave.