She is the notoriously iron-willed lady who led the now-victorious Progressive Labour Party through some of its darkest hours and who has helped shape the Island's judicial system for 45 years.

She is also the holder of a host of `firsts' -- perhaps most notably as the first female barrister Bermuda has ever produced, the first black woman to be elected as an MP, and the first woman to be chosen as an Opposition Leader in the British Commonwealth.

And Lois Browne Evans, Bermuda's grande dame of politics and law, has loved every minute of the journey -- even the parts where she had to fight tooth-and-nail for victory.

In her interview with The Royal Gazette , the iron lady showed a bit of her softer side, kicking off her shoes and relaxing in one of the Government rooms in the House of Assembly.

Mrs. Brown Evans rubbed an arthritic knee, recalling an injury of days long past when she was a high jumper at the Berkeley Institute.

She's come a long way since then -- and the high-jumping young teenager probably never guessed how high she would rise in her lifetime.

Although she was not one of the founding members of the Progressive Labour Party, she joined the Party shortly after it was formed in 1963 and attended the inaugural meeting where its Constitution was ratified.

And now, 36 years later, Mrs. Browne Evans is the longest serving Member of Parliament and respected by MPs on both sides of the fence for her contributions to this society.

She recounted her experience during the November 9 General Election which marked a huge turning point for the political party she has dedicated her life to moulding.

"Well, the first part of the day was hard work, and there was some trepidation inside me. Even though Devonshire has been a solid district for the past ten years, you worry about the marginal areas -- and we needed at least four of them to come through to make the difference,'' Mrs. Browne Evans said.

"(When the election results came through), we couldn't get packed up to come to town quick enough.

"When we got to the bottom of the hill, we couldn't get through so I tried to make my way through the crowd on foot.

"What a journey, what pushing... people reaching out to touch you and say congratulations.

"I remember people helping me up onto the stage, and not much more. I got home early, about midnight, to rest because I knew there was the next day.'' As a result of that historic day, Mrs. Browne Evans finally has the opportunity to serve on the Government side of the House.

"It's delicious! Someone said to me the other day, `you haven't stopped beaming since November 9','' she said.

"But I have a lot to beam about -- I'm very tickled, I'm happy, and I thank God for having spared my life so that I could see it.

"So many others have gone on... there's a long list, down to even the former leader Mr. Wade who was many years my junior.

"He had been into politics since the beginning -- he even went to jail for his politics,'' she said, admitting that it was quite handy to have lawyers in the ranks of a progressively radical political party.

A lot has changed since those early days, according to Mrs. Browne Evans. Most notably, young black professionals are less willing to go out on a limb for politics and instead choose to focus on personal gain.

"Over the years, ordinary people always looked to the professionals to help them, like Dr. Gordon and Dr. Cann,'' she said.

"And professionals at that time used to try to labour and at the same time, help their brothers and sisters -- they weren't just concerned with making money and becoming millionaires.

"I think a lot of that has gone -- and unfortunately, not just the doctors.

Professionals of the next generation are WIIFM's -- `What's In It For Me'.

"Some of them were thinking the battle was over, and they didn't have to fight for anything.

"But in the last four years, there was a change of attitude and more young people in college were saying `I'm coming back to help'.

"I think it's a world trend -- a lot who come home from American colleges have that sort of attitude. There's so much black consciousness in America... it died for a while after the death of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.'' Mrs. Browne Evans said Bermuda has experienced tremendous growth in terms of race relations during her lifetime, although she noted that the journey was far from being over.

"There's been a lot of changes in race relations over the past 30 years. The most significant racial change is the opportunities that have open up for black Bermudians,'' she noted.

She mentioned universal suffrage, the work done by Dr. E.F. Gordon, desegregation and the theatre boycott as being significant turning points for Bermudian race relations.

Mrs. Browne Evans said the first Election where adults over the age of 25 were eligible to vote, the "40 Thieves Government'' gave British subjects who had lived in Bermuda for three years the right to vote for the first time.

"When they gave all the British expatriate workers here the right to vote, they were trying to offset the amount of people who had come onto the electoral role,'' she noted.

"It was a clear case of racial discrimination and a gerrymandering of the voters' roll to negate the increase of Bermudian voters -- thank God we got that changed.

"But that's what's bad -- they've always used the expatriates to get them into the firing line and then stand back and watch this whole thing grow of Bermudians versus expatriates.

"(Today's racial situation) is certainly more open, there's more interchange, but unfortunately most of it stops at 5 o'clock.

"Some people are friends -- you see one or two in each other's wedding parties -- but basically there's not enough mixing, even in neighbourhoods where they live almost cheek by jowl.

"Emergencies will bring them together, but that's it. That will take quite a while in Bermuda, and it will need some people to forego their inherent feelings or breeding of racial superiority.

"The more you have it developing right now around the world -- one group feeling superior to others -- you're going to have it in Bermuda.

"It will take a long time for white people to cease and desist from that inherent belief. People mouth all this democracy, about us all being equal in God's sight, but there's not the practice of it.'' As Mrs. Browne Evans pointed out, race relations in Bermuda cannot be seen simply in black and white -- a large Portuguese community must also be taken into the dynamics.

"At one point, they decided they couldn't find a way to outnumber the blacks so they decided that the Portuguese would then be classified as whites, although before that they were lumped with blacks,'' she said.

"I don't understand why the Portuguese vote en masse for the UBP. The whole history of white Bermudians was to bring them to Bermuda and work them like serfs.

"Their housing was deplorable, they couldn't bring their families with them.. . I don't know why they're afraid to vote PLP because when Gordon started the workers' union, he brought in better terms for them and all workers.'' Mrs. Browne Evans said she has not always understood the dynamics of Bermuda's national identity, especially since she has West Indian grandparents.

"(When my mother was growing up) it wasn't very pleasant for children of West Indians, because with the divide and conquer rule I'm sure they must've told Bermudians that they were better than these people,'' she noted.

"But they survived... most people who leave a country want to better themselves and the lives of their children.

"I was born in 1927, and a lot of that (the animosity toward West Indians) had died down, but it didn't matter to me anyway -- when I went to England, I found so many qualified West Indians who had contributed to their history.

"But anyone born in a nation should have first preference for whatever's in that country -- be it jobs or business opportunities -- and that wasn't happening in Bermuda.'' Despite facing a number of tough issues and difficult circumstances, she said the hardest thing for her to contend with was her first ten years as a barrister.

As the first woman entering the profession -- and as a black woman, to boot -- Mrs. Browne Evans said she was often held back by Victorian notions of what cases were appropriate for a female to be exposed to.

"I had a very Victorian-type Chief Justice who thought I should not serve on certain types of cases like murder cases -- he thought I shouldn't go on a case where someone had killed his paramour (lover).

"After he did that about two or three times, I was about fit to tie up, pack up and go -- and I have a feeling if I hadn't gotten the Lightbourne murder trial, I would've gone.

"I wasn't exactly welcomed with open arms... I wasn't getting any other work from the start and the only way to build up your profession is by trial work.

"I was on my own, but my father was quite right: He said `if you start on your own and you're successful, then no-one can say you rode on anybody's back'.

"I became fascinated with law after reading "The Merchant of Venice'' and read about Portia and the pound of flesh.

The PLP's iron lady "People always ask why I thought I'd be able to do it, and it's because I had that confidence in my ability.

"But I don't regard any of it as a sacrifice... I've enjoyed it so much I can't imagine what my life would've been like without it. Domesticity would have long driven me around the bend.'' Long considered one of Parliament's most outspoken MPs, Mrs. Browne Evans said if given the opportunity to turn back the clock, there's nothing she would do differently -- although there are many things, particularly one, that she would've said differently.

"They had it out that I told young people that they should fornicate in the bushes -- and I never said that,'' said Mrs. Browne Evans.

She said the word "fornication'' stuck in her mind after arguing with another lawyer during a divorce proceeding whether her client should be labelled a fornicator or an adulteress.

"The word was still in my mind that night when I was over at Devonshire Rec making a speech,'' she added.

"The only thing Bermudians around there complained about at that time was the Government. The social workers had a scheme where they were trying to avert the population explosion.

"They were worried about black girls having illegitimate children -- one person even suggested if they had more than two babies they should be sterilised.

"There was a plan to sterilise girls -- and that was more than a discussion in the early 60s.

"I was so incensed by it, I told people in this speech that hard drugs were creeping into the country and no one was paying any attention -- they were just worried about these young kids having babies.

"I told them the solution for that was to bring them out to these meetings so they'll learn politics. I said as an afterthought that some might get a bit bored and go fornicate in the bushes,'' she chuckled.

"The next day in the Gazette , it said "MP tells young people to go and fornicate'' -- the reporter had to correct it later, but that didn't help.

"My enemies thought that would be the end of my political career, so they tried to keep it going.'' Although Mrs. Browne Evans said she preferred not to look too far into the future, the most immediate development she envisioned for the PLP -- as the current minister of Legislative Affairs -- was to begin working on electoral reform.

"I trust that the British Government will have relented from its former stance now that there's a labour party and allow our constitution to be amended to bring about one man, one vote, and single-seat constituencies,'' she said.

"Lord Sharples, I think, has told the Opposition that the British Government could not afford any more constitution conferences like we had in 1966 and 1973 because they were too expensive -- unless we were coming from an Independence constitution.'' But when asked what she would like to contribute as her final legacy to Bermuda, Independence was at the top of her list -- if only Bermudians were willing to take the plunge.

"When I was younger, I wanted Independence now -- Uhuru now! like in East Africa,'' she chuckled.

"At this stage, I trust I'll live to see it -- but it's not the first priority because we definitely have to go back to the people. There's been this referendum which John Swan held which clearly said `no'.

"But assuming Bermudians wanted it, (my final contribution) would've been Independence because I just want them to get that national pride... not a vain pride, but a real national pride.'' VIEWS FROM LOIS PLP VICTORY " I'm very tickled, I'm happy, and I thank God for having spared my life so that I could see it.'' *** "Now 36 years later, (being on the Government side of the House of Assembly) it's delicious!'' RACE RELATIONS "The most significant racial change is the opportunities that have opened up for black Bermudians.'' *** "It's certainly more open, there's more interchange, but unfortunately most of it stops at 5 o'clock.'' *** "I don't understand why the Portuguese vote en masse for the UBP. The whole history of white Bermudians was to bring them to Bermuda and work them like serfs.'' LEGAL PROFESSION "I had a very Victorian-type Chief Justice who thought I should not serve on certain types of cases like murder cases -- he thought I shouldn't go on a case where someone had killed his paramour.'' *** "I became fascinated with law after reading `The Merchant of Venice' and read about Portia and the pound of flesh.'' *** "I wasn't exactly welcomed with open arms.'' POLITICS "I trust that the British Government will have relented from its former stance now that there's a labour party and allow our constitution to be amended to bring about one man, one vote, and single-seat constituencies.'' *** "Assuming Bermudians wanted it, (my final contribution) would've been Independence because I just want them to get that national pride... not a vain pride, but a real national pride.''