Olga Lopes-Seale

Dame Olga Lopes-Seale, DA, GCM, MBE, BSS (26 December 1918 – 4 February 2011)[1] was a Guyanese-born Barbados-based social and community worker, radio broadcaster and singer.

Life

Born in Guyana as Olga Lopes she worked as a broadcaster for Radio Demerara (where she acquired the nickname "Auntie Olga")[2] before migrating to Barbados with her Barbadian husband, Dick Seale.[3]

In Barbados, she worked for the Barbados Rediffusion Services Limited (now Starcom Network) and was active in community work. In the 1940s and 1950s she was known as "the Vera Lynn of the Caribbean".[4] In 2005, she was made a 2005 Dame of St. Andrew.

On 9 December 2010, she fell at her home and broke her hip, suffering multiple fractures,[5] leaving her unable to continue her charity work for the Needy Children's Fund.

Death

Lopes-Seale died on 4 February 2011, aged 92 at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Bridgetown, Barbados.

References

  1. Barbados Nation Online: "Dame Olga Lopes-Seale is dead"
  2. "'Auntie Olga' still going strong in Barbados", Guyana Chronicle, 12 March 2001.
  3. Staff (4 February 2011). "Dame Olga Lopes-Seale". Caribbean News Agency (CANA). Retrieved 7 February 2011.
  4. Olga Lopes-Seale: Our Energetic Humanitarian
  5. Auntie Olga in QEH with broken hip
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