Dame Lois Browne Evans passed away yesterday but her place in Bermuda’s history books has been cemented for decades.

A true pioneer, she has a long list of “firsts” under her belt: she forged the way ahead for many politicians and women when she became the first female Opposition Leader in the Commonwealth; first black female lawyer in Bermuda; longest-standing Member of Parliament and first female Attorney General of Bermuda.

Her distinguished legal career was also littered with firsts — with many notable victories.

As Premier Ewart Brown said yesterday, with her death Bermuda lost a piece of its soul.

Born in 1927 on Parsons Road, Dame Lois Browne Evans was the second of four children to James Theophilus and Emmeline Irene Browne. Her father was a leading building contractor on the Island while her mother was a housekeeper.

From an early age Dame Lois was focused on academics and studied at the Central School before securing a position at The Berkeley, Bermuda’s leading school for black students. She completed her high school education in 1946.

But job prospects for black females were limited so despite her academic achievements she settled for a junior bookkeeper’s position at the black-owned Quality Bakery.

Nine months later, when the bakery folded, she moved on to a teaching post at Elliot School where she excelled.

However, Dame Lois never lost sight of her goal to become a lawyer and she credited her Aunt Dorothy and Shakespeare’s Portia — a female character in “The Merchant of Venice” who portrayed a male lawyer for much of the play — as her inspirations.

Another inspiration was former teacher Sir Edward Richards, the first black man in Bermuda to be knighted, who spurred her on to attend Middle Temple at London’s Inns of Court, in the UK, instead of heading to Howard University in the US where many of her contemporaries were.

While in the UK she mingled with the future “Who’s Who” of the Caribbean, people such as Earl Barrow, who became Prime Minister of Barbados; Lynden Pindling, who became Prime Minister of the Bahamas; and Eugene Walwyn who became Attorney General of St. Kitts.

At the age of 26 her mother watched as she was called to the London Bar in June, 1953. The following December she was called to the Bermuda Bar and opened her own practice.

In doing so, she became Bermuda’s first female lawyer in an era that was male — and white — dominated.

She married her husband John Evans, a Trinidadian whom she had met in London, in 1958.

One year later in her first trial as leading counsel she defended Wendell Willis Lightbourne, a man accused of killing a British secretary, and she scored a legal first.

She argued her client had diminished responsibility due to her client having brain damage. Though the jury found Lightbourne guilty they requested mercy, something that had never been done before.

Her performance during the trial made her famous in Bermuda’s legal circle.

Always a firm believer in workers rights Dame Lois joined the Bermuda Industrial Union in 1959 and one of her first steps into political life came when she spoke at a meeting for adult suffrage organised by Roosevelt Brown, also known as Dr. Pauulu Kamarakafego, in 1960.

However soon after, Dame Lois packed her bags and headed to Nigeria where she saw the country, the UK’s largest African colony, gain independence.

Perhaps inspired by what she had seen, on her return she became more involved in politics and was elected as a Member of Parliament in 1963 for Devonshire North.

In doing so, she became the first black female to be elected to Parliament.

In 1964, during the Belco strike Dame Lois jumped to the defence of veteran labourite Dr. Barbara Ball, who lost her hospital privileges when she encouraged hospital workers to join the union.

Former BIU president Derrick Burgess said: “Dame Lois was responsible for starting a petition which garnered over 6,000 signatures to have Dr. Ball reinstated at the hospital.

“In 1965 when the union was fighting for recognition at Belco, Lois Browne Evans was in a New York hospital awaiting the birth of her second child.

“However, once her husband John appraised her of the situation she was compelled for the first time in her life to sacrifice her family life for her political life. Shortly after she was released from the hospital, she returned to Bermuda to defend four of the workers who had been arrested.”

As a Member of Parliament, Dame Lois also ensured that the Bermuda Industrial Union was represented at public meetings.

In 1965, after the PLP Central Committee expelled five of its six MPs from the party leaving just Dame Lois. She became known as “the party of one” but always stated that she represented hundreds outside the House of Assembly.

In 1968 Bermuda prepared for its first General Election where all adults would be entitled to vote. The PLP won ten seats, but leader Walter Robinson lost his Hamilton West seat and Dame Lois was elected the party’s parliamentary leader.

In another first in what was already a remarkable career, she become the first woman Opposition Leader in the Commonwealth.

She held onto the position until 1972 when Mr. Robinson returned to politics. In 1973 she became Jamaica’s Honorary Consul in Bermuda, the first Bermudian to serve in this capacity.

However her time out of the leadership seat was short as Mr. Robinson quit active politics in 1976 and she became parliamentary leader and Opposition Leader again with future leader Frederick Wade as her deputy. During this election the PLP won 15 seats.

That same year she cemented her reputation as a legal heavyweight when she defended Larry Tacklyn who, along with Erskine (Buck) Burrows was accused of murdering Governor Sir Richard Sharples and his aide-de-camp Capt. Hugh Sayers as well as the Shopping Centre murders of Victor Rego and Mark Doe.

Despite her efforts Tacklyn was found guilty of the Shopping Centre murders — though not guilty of the Government House murders — and was sentenced to hang.

Dame Lois had been firmly anti-capital punishment since her university days and attempted to prevent his death, while riots were breaking out across the country, through eleventh hour legal footwork.

Her stance against capital punishment is one of the reasons she never pursued a seat on the Supreme Court bench, because she refused to be in a position where she might have to sentence someone to death.

In the 1980 election she led the PLP in its closest election loss to the UBP — she was pictured by The Royal Gazette crossing her fingers into an X urging people to express themselves and vote. She remained leader of the Opposition until 1985.

She remained active in the PLP as an MP and helped support immigration reforms as well as a law enabling married women to achieve Bermudian status.

When the PLP won its first election in 1998 she was appointed Minster of Legislative Affairs, another first and became Bermuda’s first elected Attorney General and first female Attorney General in 1999.

That year she was also made a Dame Commander of the British Empire by the Queen.

She retired as an MP in 2003 and holds the title of Bermuda’s longest serving MP. However her service to the country did not end there she was appointed to Bermuda’s Independence Commission in 2005.