Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

Sharon Marley (right) mourns at the funeral of her grandmother, Cedella Marley Booker, at the Ethiopian Orthodox Church on Monday. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

CEDELLA BOOKER, the humble country girl whose first-born became a champion of the impoverished and downtrodden, was given an emotional send-off yesterday at the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, St Andrew.

Roughly 300 persons turned out at the church's Maxfield Avenue base to say farewell to the mother of reggae legend Bob Marley. She died in her sleep at her South Florida home on April 8 at age 81.

"She was a nice lady, pleasant and joyful," said Alan 'Skill' Cole, the former national footballer who was a close friend of Bob Marley.

The 90-minute service, which was conducted mainly in Geeze, the ancient Ethiopian language, was attended by members of the Marley family. They were led by Booker's daughter-in-law, Rita Marley; her son Richard, granddaughter Sharon, and several great-grandchildren.

Awarded the OD

Deputy Prime Minister Ken Baugh, who represented Prime Minister Bruce Golding at the service, said the Government has awarded Booker the Order of Distinction (Commander Class), Jamaica's fifth-highest civic honour.

Rita Marley said her mother-in-law would have appreciated the gesture.

"Thanks for giving Moms this honour, she deserves it," Marley said.

The congregation included persons who were part of the Marley phenomenon. Among them were Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records, which launched Marley's international career in the 1970s; Cole, his former road manager; Neville Garrick, who designed several of Marley's album jackets, and guitarist Earl 'Chinna' Smith.

Baugh said Booker "upheld the humility" of her childhood in Nine Miles, St Ann. "I think Bob was thinking of her when he sang No Woman No Cry," he said.

Booker was born Cedella Malcolm in Nine Miles. At 18, she gave birth to Robert Nesta Marley. His father was Norval Marley, an Englishman 32 years her senior.

After Norval Marley died in 1955, she moved to the Kingston slum of Trench Town which inspired some of her eldest child's greatest songs, including Talking Blues and Concrete Jungle.

Cedella Booker married Edward Booker, an African-American, shortly after immigrating to Wilmington, Delaware, in the mid-1960s. He died in 1976.

She recorded two albums and wrote two biographies about her son who died in Miami in May 1981 at the age of 36.

Cedella Booker was buried in Nine Miles at the site where her son was interred 27 years ago.