Embattled Former U.S. Virgin Islands Senator and Senate Liaison to the White House Wayne James Releases 800-Page, Cutting-Edge Etiquette Book, Manly Manners.
Former U.S. Virgin Islands senator and Senate Liaison to the White House Wayne James has just released his highly anticipated etiquette book for men, Manly Manners: Lifestyle & Modern Etiquette for the Young Man of the 21st Century. Published by the iUniverse division of Penguin-Random House, the provocative, edgy, 840-page book—the first of a three-volume treatise totaling 2,100 pages—has been in the making for six years. Since January of 2011, the author has lived on three continents and one archipelago—South America, North America, Europe, and the Caribbean—researching for and writing the treatise, which is already being called “The most comprehensive work on male comportment,” “Refreshingly inclusive and matter-of-factly cosmopolitan,” and “A tour de force.”
James, a Georgetown University law graduate, fashion designer, scholar of Danish West Indies history, and art collector, is also no stranger to controversy: In June of 2016, he waived extradition and was returned to the U.S. Virgin Islands from Italy in August to face Federal criminal charges for alleged “fiscal inconsistencies” during his 2009 – 2011 senate term. James was indicted under seal in October of 2015 and first became aware of the charges eight months later, in June of 2016. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges but was declared a “flight risk” and denied bail until October 7, 2016, when he posted bail and was released under 24/7 lockdown “home incarceration” pending the trial. The trial is scheduled for February 2017.
“Much has—apparently—been said about me while I was abroad on my writing-sojourn,” James said. “Now, after almost six years of rumors and false accusations, I will have my say in a court of law.”
Besides refreshingly covering conventional etiquette-book topics such as table manners, men’s grooming and hygiene, receiving lines, how to hold a glass of red wine versus a glass of white, and how to conduct oneself at an Audience with the pope, Manly Manners also delves into subjects once regarded as taboo or unthinkable for gentlemanly-types: what to do when detained by law enforcement officers; the etiquette of gay saunas, gloryholes, and fetish parties; how to “shop while ethnic”; how to survive prison; the etiquette of os impurum, irrumatio, anilingus, and cunnilingus; how to avoid being shot on a front porch while seeking emergency assistance in the middle of the night; delicate ways of suggesting an enema to a sex-partner prior to engaging in anal sex; and how to masturbate—correctly—so as to avoid contracting Peyronie’s Disease. The book, its Foreword written by Finland’s and Sweden’s Baron Peter von Troil, also has a substantial chapter titled “International Customs and Influences,” which discusses everything from what to do if invited to a wedding in India or Iran, a Bar Mitzvah in Argentina, a funeral in Japan, a business meeting in China, or a dinner in Dubai, to the protocol of a coffee ceremony in Ethiopia. Then there is a 200-page chapter—practically a book in itself—on how to plan a same-sex wedding from A to Z.
“My aim was to write a reference book that engages readers like a mystery or romance novel,” said James, dubbed “The ‘Bad Boy’ of Good Manners.” “The book entices young men, word by word, sentence by sentence, page by page. I envision males, ages 16 to 60, staying up late into the night reading Manly Manners—even if under the bedsheets with the aid of a flashlight!”
Volume two, Manly Manners: The Cultivation of the Inner, Spiritual Gentleman, will be released in June of 2017; and volume three, Manly Manners: The Masculine Luxuries, will be published in October of 2017.
James will announce his book-tour and lecture schedules after the February trial. “Since June of 2016, I have been in four prisons and have seen and experienced a segment of the male population that has given me a more complete outlook on what it is to be a man in the 21st century,” James said. “My recent experiences, when put into the context of my eventful life, have made me especially qualified to speak to men from all walks of life—from the noble to the notorious—on matters pertaining to modern men’s lifestyle. I also have a thing or two to say about the ‘Presumption of Innocence’ and prison reform! Many a grown man would have succumbed under similar circumstances. But this is all a testament to one of my primary outlooks on life: ‘As you surmount the various obstacles on your road to success, you get a clearer view of your final destination.’ Besides, now I can truly say that I have friends in high—and low—places. And now I can speak about it all in a more Zen way,” James concluded.
Manly Manners: Lifestyle & Modern Etiquette for the Young Man of the 21st Century (ISBN: 978-1-4917-9427-2), distributed by Ingram Books, the world’s largest distributor of books, is available in hardcover, paperback, and eBook formats online at http://www.amazon.com , http://www.BarnesandNoble.com , and http://www.iUniverse.com , as well as in bookstores worldwide and at other online booksellers.
On that fateful morning of July 3, 1848, when almost half of the enslaved population of St. Croix, motivated by Budhoe, converged on the town of Frederiksted to demand immediate emancipation—thereby joining Haitians as the only self-liberators in the history of Trans-Atlantic Slavery—the great accomplishment was memorialized in song: “Clear dih Road [leh dih Slave dem pass].”
Three names are mentioned in that great “cariso” song: “Budhoe,” the liberator; “von Scholten,” the Governor-General from whose grasp Budhoe wrenched freedom; and “Father Ryan,” who is praised in the folksong for his acts of kindness.
To date, very little scholarship has been devoted to unraveling the life and death of Budhoe; seemingly countless books and papers have been penned on the accomplishments of Peter von Scholten; and except for ecclesiastical scholars and the archives of the St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Frederiksted, St. Croix, the name “Father Ryan” does not ring a bell with most present-day Virgin Islanders, especially since very few people know the lyrics of “Clear dih Road” aside from the chorus.
When the young, Ireland-born Father Timothy André O’Ryan came to St. Croix in the early 1840s to serve as priest to the then-churchless Frederiksted Catholics—the original St. Patrick’s Church built in the 1700s having been destroyed by fire years before O’Ryan’s arrival—it is unlikely that he suspected that he would come to be unknown as the greatest parish priest of 19th-century St. Croix. By the end of his short life at the age of 43 on November 18, 1860, Father O’Ryan, known affectionately as “Father Ryan” by his Black parishioners, had overseen the construction of the extant St. Patrick’s Church; established himself as the “Father of Catholic Education on St. Croix”; and become beloved by the enslaved population for his sympathies towards their struggle for Emancipation, apparently to the ire of the plantation owner-manager class, many of whom were, like Father Ryan, from Ireland.
With the rise in genealogical research as aided by Ancestry.com and the digitization of the governmental and ecclesiastical archives of the Danish West Indies, coupled with a renewed interest in Afro-centric scholarship not equaled since the 1970s, research on John “General Buddho” Gotleib [Gutliff] is emerging. But details of the life of the almost-now-fabled “Father Ryan” remain ever elusive.
Father O’Ryan—The Builder
There are three grand staircases in Virgin Islands architecture: the “pyramid” staircase that leads to the ballroom of Government House, Christiansted; the 18th-century ballast brick staircase of the Frederick Evangelical Lutheran Church that elegantly cascades down to Norre Gade, Charlotte Amalie; and the palatial staircase that welcomes parishioners entering St. Patrick’s Catholic Church from its Prince Street, Frederiksted, main entrance. Each of those architectural appendages is arguably more beautiful than the other two.
Crowning the generous main doorway of St. Patrick’s is a time-tested, weather-worn marble plaque which reads: Dedication of St. Patrick by the Right Rev. Dr. Richard Smith, Bishop, on the 23rd of June, 1844, and erected principally by the parishioners; under the auspices of the Rev. T. A. O’Ryan, pastor, June 15, 1846.
Few people notice the lofty inscription. And even fewer have ever read it….
Perhaps more conspicuous, however, are the lyrics of the age-old Crucian Emancipation song, Clear Dih Road, the 1957 recording by esteemed public health nurse Marie Richards (1890-1960) regarded by many as the most hauntingly authentic rendition.
Clear Dih Road; ah’yoh, Clear Dih Road;
Clear Dih Road, leh dih Slave dem pass,
We ah goh foh ah’we Freedom.
Hardship in the mahnin’, suffering at night;
No one ever help us; ‘tis only Father Ryan.
Dem bring we yah from Africa, das we bahnin’ lan’;
Bring we yah in Slavery in dih lan’ of Santa Cruz.
Clear Dih Road; ah’yoh, Clear Dih Road;
Clear Dih Road, leh dih Slave dem pass,
We ah goh foh ah’we Freedom.
We noh want noh bloodshed,
Not ah drop of bloodshed.
Wha’ we want is freedom,
Oh, gih we ah’we Freedom.
Come leh ah’we goh toh town,
Leh we meet dih Gen’ral.
Gen’ral name is Budhoe;
He gon gih we Freedom.
Clear Dih Road; ah’yoh Clear Dih Road;
Clear Dih Road, leh dih Slave dem pass,
We ah goh foh ah’we Freedom.
Governor von Scholten,
Da Governor von Scholten…
Stretch he power ‘til he crack,
And he write down ah’we Freedom.
Clear Dih Road; ah’yoh Clear Dih Road;
Clear Dih Road, leh dih Slave dem pass,
We ah goh foh ah’we Freedom….
But who is Father Timothy Andre O’Ryan? The laconic, unlaudatory tone of his obituary rings loud:
St. Croix Avis, November 20th, 1860
OBITUARY
Died on Sunday morning at his residence on the Estate Prosperity, Revd. TIMOTHY O’RYAN, Rector of the Roman Catholic Church Frederiksted, aged 43 years. His remains were interred in the afternoon according to the solemn ceremonial of his religion, and followed by a large concourse of sorrowing parishioners, friends, and acquaintances.
An exhaustive search of the various Danish West Indies (Virgin Islands) newspapers of the day indicates no other mention of the death of the beloved priest. And six years later, it is a Protestant, not a Catholic, who writes a Letter to the Editor of the St. Croix Avis bemoaning the fact that no tomb had been erected to mark the burial spots of Father O’Ryan and his beloved French-born successor Father Pfanner:
St. Croix Avis, August 28th 1866
COMMUNICATION.
To the Editor of the St. Croix Avis!
Dear Sir:
In Conversation with two esteemed female friends of mine, of the Roman Catholic Church, while on a visit to your town, a short time ago, the subject relative to the erection of tombs over the graves of Reverends O’Ryan and Pfanner (the latter successor to the former as parish priest in this town [Frederiksted]) was brought up. The ladies deplored very much the manifest indifference on the part of the congregation here to the memory of the deceased priests. They (and I endorse their opinion) warmly declared that both the departed deserved the highest consideration on the part of the congregation. The former from his long and successful labours, as well as the erection of the present commodious Church with its large organ; and the latter for his benevolence, kind heartedness, and truly useful, though short career, not only among his own people but particularly among the poorer classes of every denomination. Oh! How the poor of this community must miss the “good doctor-priest and benevolent father who would, without hesitation, give his services and means (pecuniary) to ‘protestant and catholic! ‘ “ Early or late, this indefatigable old gentleman was always ready to leave his house to attend the bedside of the sick, either in capacity of priest or doctor. When called at night, there was no saying “I cannot come out: Wait until morning!” be the case ever so extreme; but at once he would bestir himself and hurry out most cheerfully to reach the house of the sick person never mind how humble it was. In common gratitude, therefore, the memory of the deceased should be perpetuated by the building or raising of tombs or columns. These can be easily had from the United States.
I would politely suggest that the matter be submitted to the present priest, Rev. Mr. Naughten, who, no doubt would draw up a subscription-list to be presented, indiscriminately, to the protestant and catholic. I am sure the Rev. gentleman will have no scruples. By this means, an amount might soon be raised sufficient to place monuments in memory of the priests.
I wish my protestant brethren would be stimulated to erect one over the Rev. Mr. Wade.
A PROTESTANT
West End, August 25th 1866
To 21st-century sensitivities, it could appear that Father O’Ryan’s embrace of the enslaved population of St. Croix, followed by his affinity for the newly emancipated people, caused a rift between him and his parishioners of the planter-manager class.
Father O’Ryan—The Early Years on St. Croix
The 1841 Danish West Indies census records no presence of a Timothy André O’Ryan. Apparently, however, plans to rebuild St. Patrick’s Catholic Church were underway as evidenced by the 1841 public request for construction bids:
Dansk Vestindisk Regierings Avis [Danish West Indies Government Newspaper], September 16, 1841
PERSONS desirous to undertake the MASON WORK of the Roman Catholic church in Frederiksted, will please send sealed Tenders to the Undersigned within ten days from date. The particulars of the work to be done &c. can be seen at his residence and also at his store in Christiansted.
Frederiksted, 15th Septr. 1841
By desire of the Committee,
C: F: DOUTE.
The first secular evidence—albeit pertaining to a religious matter—of the presence of Father O’Ryan in the Danish West Indies occurs in the St. Croix Avis in 1844 when the young clergyman assisted in the Mass for the laying, by Governor-General Peter von Scholten, of the cornerstone of the new St. Patrick’s Church, thereby establishing the commencement of construction of the beautiful Spanish Mission-style edifice:
St. Croix Avis, June 27, 1844 [p. 4]
On Sunday last (2d instant) His Lordship Bishop of Agna, attended by the Reverend Messrs O’Ryan[.] (parish priest) T.E. Butler and O’Hanly, blessed pontifically the corner stone of St. Patrick’s Church, Frederiksted, which was laid by our highly-esteemed Governor General P C. F. von Scholten. A great number of children, attached to the church, dressed in white with bouquets and torches in their hands, met His Excellency and suite at the gate leading to the church. The ceremony was unusually imposing and gratifying to the assembled congregation. The sacrifice of the Mass being offered by the Reverend Mr. O’Ryan. His Lordship then delivered a powerful and eloquent discourse, after which a collection was made in the aid of the funds for the building of the sacred edifice. A fine morning, very propitious to the day, added splendour to the scene.
[The façade of St. Patrick’s Church is appointed with coral stone ashlars quarried in Frederiksted town from a rich deposit of the precious stone then situated east of the St. Paul’s Anglican Schoolhouse/Parish Hall, in what is today the excavated area where the St. Paul’s annual bazaar was held. Stone from that same quarry was used to construct the walls of the Anglican Cemetery in the heart of Frederiksted, as well some of the stately plantation dwellings at Estate La Grange.]
The great colonial church—at the time the largest in the Danish West Indies—was completed two years later, on June 15, 1846, and consecrated on March 12, 1848, four months before Emancipation:
St. Croix Avis, March 16, 1848
ST. CROIX,
Christiansted 16th March 1848
ON Sunday the 12th Inst., the Consecration of the New Catholic Church of Frederiksted, took place; the Grand-imposing Ceremony was performed by the Right Revered Dr. SMITH Bishop of Olympus, assisted by the Reverend Abbe CHRISTOPHE his Lordship’s Secretary, and the Reverend Messrs. O’RYAN and BUTLER. His Excellency Governor General P. v. SCHOLTEN was present on the occasion, and appeared to take a lively interest in every thing around him. At half past 10 o’clock His Excellency attended by some of his principal Officers made his appearance at the Gate of the Yard leading to the Church—he was received by Reverend Gentlemen attendant on His Lordship, and escorted to the principal door of the church, where the Bishop in full pontificials received him with marked attention. After the usual procession was made by the Bishop and Clergy round the walls of the church, His Excellency was conducted inside the sanctuary, where a suitable place was prepared for him on the Epistle-Side of the Altar. High Mass was changed by the Reverend Mr. CHRISTOPHE, assisted by the Reverend Mr. O’RYAN as Deacon, and the Reverend Mr. BUTLER as Subdeacon. After the Gospel, a Sermon suited to the occasion was preached by the Reverend Mr. BUTLER, taking his text from “The 2d Book Paralipomeno, chapter 7, verse 16.” After Mass, His Lordship in his usual effective manner returned thanks to His Excellency the Governor General in particular, and to the planters and all in general, who assisted at the consecration. Every thing passed off with the utmost order and decorum. We do not recollect ever to have seen on any single occasion in St. Croix, so many people assembled together, and as the dense mass moved away from the Church Yard, they could not but express the wish, that soon again they might have the happiness to witness so beautiful a ceremony. We understand that His Excellency and upwards of forty guests were entertained at lunch on the same day, by the Revd. Mr. O’RYAN.
In last week paper, we omitted to mention that on the preceding Sunday March the 5th, His Lordship the Bishop of Olympus conferred the Sacrament of Confirmation on 215 persons in the same Church.—His Lordship preached on the occasion, and in the beginning of his Discourse alluded in very affecting terms to the death of our late beloved Sovereign King CHRISTIAN THE 8th. High Mass was sung by the Rev’d. Mr. O’RYAN, assisted by the Rev’d. Abbe CHRISTOPHE ad Deacon and the Rev’d. Mr. BUTLER as Subdeacon.
Slavery, Emancipation, and St. Patrick’s Church
As such, Slavery, Emancipation, and St. Patrick’s are inextricably linked—via Father Timothy André O’Ryan: Completed under the auspices of O’Ryan two years before Emancipation, St. Patrick’s was built by enslaved parishioners; and it is said that on July 3, 1848, upon hearing of the freedom of the enslaved, Father O’Ryan, known for his support of the downtrodden, authorized the celebratory ringing of the bell of “Great and Glorious St. Patrick” for having “hearkened to the prayers” of its children; and the church is named in honor of the 5th-century A.D. Romano-British missionary known as the “Apostle of Ireland,” who was himself enslaved when at age 16 he was captured by Irish pirates and taken from his homeland in Britain as a slave to Ireland, where he remained for six years before escaping and returning to his family. After becoming a cleric, he returned to Ireland in order to spread Christianity to the pagan people of the island. By the 7th century, Patrick had already become revered as the patron saint of Ireland.
Timothy André O’Ryan: “Father of Catholic Education on St. Croix.”
Father O’Ryan’s foray into the realm of public education began in 1850 with his appointment to the 12-member Commissioners of St. Croix Country Schools. And by 1855, seven years after the 1848 consecration of St. Patrick’s Church, and being acutely aware of the need of the newly emancipated to obtain the elements of education, Father O’Ryan turned his focus towards the establishment of St. Patrick’s School. The earliest public record of the school’s formative years appears in an 1855 announcement of annual exams. (By 1861, less than a year after Father O’Ryan’s untimely death, St. Patrick’s School was on its way and continues to this day, more than 160 years after its modest beginnings.)
St. Croix Avis, September 28, 1855
THE Parents and Guardians of the children attending the Catholic School Frederiksted, are hereby notified that the annual examination will take place on Wednesday October 3rd at 11 o’clock, No. 43 Kings Street.
Frederiksted, September 24th 1855.
T.A. O’RYAN.
One year later, in 1856, there was no longer a need to conduct school matters at No. 43 King Street, for St. Patrick’s had its own schoolhouse, adjacent to the church that gave it rise:
St. Croix Avis, May 27, 1856
THE “AVIS.”
Christiansted, St. Croix.
TUESDAY, 27th MAY 1856
THE RIGHT REVEREND
LORD TALBOT
His Lordship, who is on a mission from His Holiness the Pope to inquire into the state and progress of the Catholic Religion in the West Indies, celebrated High Mass in the Catholic Church of Frederiksted on Thursday last (Corpus Christy,) at 7 o’clock in the morning and administered the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist to 318 persons. At a subsequent Mass which was offered up at 10 o’clock, His Lordship also administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to 90 postulants and delivered a most impressive sermon. At a later period of the day His Lordship inspected the schools attached to the church and was highly pleased with the advancement of the children.
This distinguished personage visited this town on Saturday last. On Sunday he delivered an eloquent sermon to a very large congregation which had assembled in the Catholic Church. After dwelling for a considerable time on the duties of man to his Creator and giving striking illustrations from the Bible, he concluded by imploring to his people to attend to their religious duties and to obey their superiors, whether civil or ecclesiastical whom God had placed over them. The Revd. Orcini celebrated High Mass, assisted by the Rev. O’Ryan, parish priest of Frederiksted and Revd. McNamie, parish priest of this [Christiansted] town. Monsieur Chedeville, French Consul at St. Thomas, who is on a visit to this [St. Croix] island, attended Divine Service.
Bishop Talbot gave a lecture yesterday morning, after which he proceeded to West End, thence for St. Thomas en route to Europe.
Father O’Ryan—The Man
The presbytery at St. Patrick’s not then built, the 1846, 1850, 1855, and 1857 censuses all show Father O’Ryan as living with the Egan family at Nos. 32/33 King Street, Frederiksted, the Egans establishing themselves on St. Croix by 1818. The 1850 census lists Nancy Joseph, the cook, born in Africa in 1795, as amongst the household staff.
In 1860 Father Timothy A. O’Ryan acquires Estate Prosperity, thereby, ironically joining the post-Emancipation planter-class with the attendant labor reforms for which he had so vigorously lobbied. The Egan household accompanied O’Ryan when in 1860 he moved into Prosperity’s Greathouse, one of the island’s grandest.
Within a year of his acquisition of Estate Prosperity, the beloved “Father Ryan” was dead. Cause of Death: Debility. His November 18, 1860, death record indicates that he was buried in the churchyard of the church, the construction of which he oversaw from cornerstone to towering steeple.
Efforts are underway to memorialize the burial place of Father Timothy André O’Ryan in coral stone from his beloved St. Croix. (A fitting memorial will be erected to memorialize his immediate successor, Father Pfanner, and a wreath will be laid upon the gravesite of Ms. Marie Richards, R.N., whose rendition of Clear Dih Road helped keep Father Ryan’s memory alive.)
It is said that there are lies, damned lies, and statistics. And based on statistics, Eileen Ramona Petersen should have been a dismal failure: She was born out-of-wedlock; her mother Anna Leevy, herself born out-of-wedlock, in search of opportunity, migrated to Puerto Rico when Eileen was a little girl, leaving her behind on St. Croix to be raised by the very foster family that had raised Anna Leevy when her mother died during Anna’s early years; in 1947, when Eileen was just 10 years of age, her father, Hugo Realdo Petersen, by then living in New York, got married and started a new family, leaving Eileen behind.
After living for some time between her paternal grandparents and her father’s sister, who it is said treated Eileen more akin to servant-girl than niece, Eileen, one fateful day, simply went to the home of her mother’s childhood foster-sister, Cynthia Nesbitt [Francis]—who, like Eileen and her mother Anna before her, had been raised by the same Brandon foster family—and never went back to her aunt’s home. (Hugo Petersen’s elder brother Anselmo, born on St. Croix in 1910 and trained as a carpenter, died in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in January of 1933 at age 22 of pneumonia.) Such is the stuff of which personal tragedies are oftentimes made.
But failure was not Eileen’s destiny. Extraordinarily bright, she graduated from Christiansted High School (CHS) in 1954, one year early, and with a full academic scholarship in-hand, set off for Hampton Institute (today’s Hampton University), where she majored in English and education. In 1966, she earned her Juris Doctorate from Howard University in the nation’s capital, one of only four women in her class. And just a handful of years later, on November 5, 1971, Eileen Ramona Petersen became the Honorable Judge Petersen when she was appointed first female judge of the Municipal Court (later, Territorial Court, and today Superior Court) of the Virgin Islands. And by the time of her death at age 86 on April 25, 2023, she had firmly established herself as one of the greatest Virgin Islanders of the 20th century.
The Early Years
On December 13, 1944, when seven-year-old Eileen boarded the Caribbean Atlantic Airlines’ flight destined for Santurce, Puerto Rico, to visit her mother Anna Leevy for Christmas, young Eileen probably had no idea that their coming together would separate them, creating a chasm more profound than the Puerto Rico Trench: Eileen’s mother, who worked as a domestic servant in Santurce, had carefully selected beautiful dresses for her young daughter—each with a color-coordinated parasol, which Eileen was instructed to open to shade herself from the sun so as not to “get any darker.” When Eileen flew back to St. Croix on February 12, 1945, she vowed never again to visit her mother in Puerto Rico. Eileen kept her promise. And the distance between the mother and daughter was never bridged. Yes, Eileen, during her growing years, regularly received packages containing beautiful clothes from her mother. And when Eileen, while studying at Hampton, received word of her mother’s diagnosis with breast cancer, she rushed to her mother’s sick bed in New York. And, of course, when Anna Leevy died in 1964 while Eileen was studying law at Howard University, she put down her books and buried her mother. But rarely did Eileen speak of her mother. And no photo of Anna Leevy was on display in Eileen’s home.
Eileen’s Matrilineal Line
Anna Leevy was born on St. Croix in 1915 to Rosetta Bartlett and John Richard (J.R.) Leevy. Rosetta, born in Nevis in 1892, came to St. Croix with her parents Ada Louise Pemberton and Walter James Bartlett of Nevis in 1898, settling at Estate Jerusalem, where the couple gave birth to another child, Hubert Emanuel Bartlett, in 1906. Walter James Bartlett (Eileen’s maternal great-grandfather), died on July 1, 1913, at age 50, followed by the death of Ada Louise Pemberton (Eileen’s maternal great-grandmother) on December 12, 1914, at age 50. Thus, at the taking of the 1920 Census (compiled in 1917/18 just after the 1917 Transfer and filed in 1920), both of Rosetta’s parents had already died, leaving Rosetta to care for her younger brother. In said census, Rosetta is recorded living at Estate Contentment, located on the western outskirts of the town of Christiansted, raising her younger brother Hubert and her daughter Anna Leevy. And it is at Estate Contentment that Rosetta encountered J.R. Leevy, a mulatto born on the island of St. Eustatius in 1859 and brought to St. Croix as a toddler by his white father John Leevy (presumably widowered), also of St. Eustatius, in 1863. A white man of humble means, John Leevy (the elder) lived amongst the island’s urban black population, marrying Jane Margret of Estate Morning Star in 1875. Leevy the elder (Eileen’s maternal great-grandfather) is first recorded in the 1880 Census living at Estate Contentment and listed as working in ”agricultry,” with his black wife Jane recorded as “serving her husband.” (In the 1890 Census, Leevy and Jane are living on Market Street in Christiansted, along with his son J.R. Leevy, J. R’s wife Rosabel, and the young couple’s first two children. In the 1901 Census, John Leevy the elder andhis wife Jane are recorded living on Hill Street in Christiansted with his 7-year-old grandchild Estella Leevy. John and Jane, both middle-aged when they were married in 1875, never produced children together. John Leevy, described in his obituary in the St. Croix Bulletin as “one of our best known and most successful of our small proprietors,” died in cart accident on January 20, 1903. Jane died in 1909. J.R. Leevy honored his stepmother Jane by naming a daughter Jane.)
Like his father, J.R. Leevy (Eileen’s maternal grandfather) lived amongst the island’s non-white peoples, marrying mulatto Rosabel Augusta Finch on May 19,1886, the couple producing a houseful of children, Emma Theolinda (“Emmalinda”) Leevy [Francis], mother of Helen Iola Francis Joseph, being one of the Finch-Leevy progeny. (In the 1901 Census, J.R. Leevy describes himself as “Planter” while his wife is listed as “baker.” And in the 1911 Census, she is listed as a “washer.” J.R. Leevy is listed as the owner of house No. 70 Estate Contentment, said house carrying a mortgage. At Contentment, he and his children and son-in-law Alfred Francis are earning their livelihood by farming provisions. Self-made man J.R. Leevy, along with merchant Morris Pretto and master joiner Charles McFarlane, was appointed to Colonial Council in 1915.) Thus, in 1915, when family man J.R. Leevy, at age 55, fathered an “outside” child with 23-year-old Rosetta Bartlett, acknowledging the child by baptizing her Anna Leevy, the legitimate Leevy family—especially Anna’s Leevy half-siblings—did not welcome her (and by extension, the child to which she would give birth 22 years later in 1937). Thus, when Rosetta died young, it was Mary Brandon (of Nevis) and her husband David Brandon (of St. Croix), owner-operators of a boarding house in Christiansted, who took in young Anna Leevy. The 1930 Census lists Anna Leevy as the “adopted daughter” of the Brandons. Also listed as an “adopted daughter” of the Brandons is Cynthia Nesbitt, born in 1924 to Eva Parris [Edwards]. And it is that de facto sisterhood between Anna Leevy and Cynthia Nesbitt that would serve as the foundation for Eileen’s brick-by-brick construction of her life.
Eileen’s Mother, Anna Leevy
In 1936, while living with the Brandons, Anna Leevy had a relationship with Hugo R. Peterson (1914-1994) who descends on both sides from Crucians who can trace their ancestry on St. Croix back to the formative years of the Danish era. Eileen Ramona Petersen, born April 18, 1937, was the result of that short-lived union. The 1940 Census shows 3-year-old Eileen living with her mother Anna, who is employed by the island’s rum industry, but Hugo Petersen is not a member of the household. And by the mid-1940s, Anna had migrated to Santurce, Puerto Rico to work as a domestic servant. In 1946, Anna Leevy is living at 404 Riverside Drive in New York; and in 1947 Hugo Petersen marries Theophilia Boynes [Brown] of St. Croix (by way of the Dominican Republic) and is living in New York. By the tender age of 10, therefore, Eileen becomes keenly aware that she will have to make her own way through life.
When Eileen’s mother first left for Puerto Rico, Eileen lived with Mr. and Mrs. Brandon, both born in 1889 and therefore in their mid-50s. Eventually, it was decided that Eileen would live with her father’s parents, Anna Rebecca James Petersen (born on St. Croix in 1883) and Charles Augustus Petersen (born on St. Croix in 1882) at their New Street, Christiansted home. Still at home was their daughter Eugenie, Eileen’s paternal aunt, born on St. Croix in 1921. But Aunt Eugenie, just 16 years Eileen’s senior, was fond of the whip. And one day in the mid-1940s, when Eileen was still in her preteen years and had had enough of her aunt Eugenie’s disciplinary measures, she sought refuge at the 37AB Fisher Street, Christiansted, home of Leroy Francis (1916-1969) and his wife Cynthia Nesbitt Francis (1924-2016) and never looked back….
The Francis Family
“My mother, Cynthia Nesbitt [Francis], and Eileen’s mother, Anna Leevy, grew up together as sisters with Mr. and Mrs. Brandon,” said Bernice Francis [Garcia], born in 1944. “All my life, I simply knew Eileen as my sister. I knew that her last name was Petersen and mine was Francis, but it never occurred to me that that accounted for any difference. Eileen was simply my sister. We were raised that my mother was Eileen’s mother, and Eileen’s mother was our ‘Auntie Anna’. From since I know myself, Eileen was living with us as one of us. That’s just how it was,” Bernice added, finding no other way to describe the family dynamics.
“The way the story goes,” she continued, “Ms. Eugenie, Eileen’s aunt, had her out for a Cinderella. She liked the whip. And one day, Eileen got tired of it, ran to our house, and never went back to her aunt. And when Ms. Eugenie came looking for Eileen, whip in hand, my mother told her in no uncertain terms, ‘Put one foot in this yard and I will box you down’.”
Eileen settled in, made herself feel at-home, and never looked back. When she graduated from Christiansted High School in 1954, less than two months after turning 17 years old, Eileen was still living with the Francis family. And when she graduated from Hampton Institute in 1959 at age 22 with a joint Bachelor’s in English/Master’s in Education, she moved back in with the Francis family, which had by that time moved from Fisher Street to Estate Richmond. Likewise, when Eileen departed St. Croix in the fall of 1963 to begin her Juris Doctorate studies at Howard University, it was from the Francis home in Richmond that she set off. And when in 1966 she made her triumphant return to St. Croix after earning her law degree, it was into the Francis home at Richmond that she moved before moving to St. Thomas to begin her job as Assistant Attorney General under Attorney General Francisco Corneiro.(When in the 1960s Mrs. Brandon, then widowed, could no longer care for herself, Cynthia Nesbitt Francis brought her to live with the family in the Richmond home, giving back to Mrs. Brandon what Mrs. Brandon had given to her: a safe haven called home. Cynthia addressed Mrs. Brandon as “Nenny,” and all the Francis children. including Eileen, addressed her as “Mama.” Mrs. Brandon lived with the Francis family as a member of the family until her death.)
It is the family of Cynthia Nesbitt Francis and her husband Leroy Francis, therefore, that provided the bed and bedrock from which Eileen could launch one of the most remarkable careers of any Virgin Islander—man or woman—of the 20th century.
When Leroy Francis married Cynthia Nesbitt in 1947, Cynthia already had three children: Cedelle, Aubrey, and Bernice. Mr. Francis adopted the three children, and the couple went on to produce four additional children: David Dean (named in honor of Mr. David Brandon who, along with his wife Mary, raised Cynthia Nesbitt); Joyce Ilma; Patricia; and Leroy Timothy. But there was never a space problem—whether at the dining table or upon a bedstead—for sister Eileen.
Likewise, when the family decided that Bernice should complete her high school studies at Washington Irving High in New York, it was with Eileen’s birthmother, Anna Leevy, that Bernice lived on Liberty Avenue in Brooklyn until she graduated in 1964,
“I couldn’t have asked for a better aunt,” said Bernice, describing her four years with Eileen’s mother, whom she called “Auntie Anna.” “Auntie Anna was an excellent cook and a great baker. She loved making stew meat and rice and could bake tarts and cakes with the best of them.
“She had a mahogany-brown complexion. And a full head of hair. But it was her smile that was captivating,” Bernice fondly recalls. “She had a beautiful smile. I couldn’t have asked for a better aunt.”
When Bernice graduated from high school in 1964, Eileen was in her second year of law school at Howard University. And it was with Eileen that Bernice took up residence.
“Eileen’s mother died in 1964. I remember it well because I was pregnant with my first child when my husband and I drove from Washington to New York for the funeral. Mr. and Mrs. Scott, whom Auntie Anna referred to as her cousins, must have packed up and stored Auntie Anna’s things after her death because Eileen was busy with school. And I know that Eileen got her mother’s belongings because some of the mahogany that I used to see in Auntie Anna’s house on Liberty Avenue was in Eileen’s house on St. Croix,” Bernice recounted. “Auntie Anna had a photo of herself in New York, but I don’t know what became of that photo.”
Eileen’s Career
Eileen demonstrated academic aptitude from the very beginning. And when Alonso Moron of St. Thomas became President of Hampton Institute, he began aggressively recruiting Virgin Islanders. Eileen received an all-expense-paid Ford Foundation Scholarship in 1954, and she seized the opportunity to further her education at Hampton. And after earning her Juris Doctorate in 1966. She enrolled in the L.L.M (Master’s of Labor Law) program at George Washington University in 1969.
Eileen never looked back—not even when, upon returning home in 1959, would wear her favorite red lipstick, only to have everyone in her church turn around to stare at her when the pastor started preaching about Jezebel. Eileen looked straight ahead at the altar, knowing that she had to answer to God, not to man.
Even when she suffered the shocking defeat in the general election in her 1994 bid for Delegate to Congress, she never looked back: Two years later, in 1996, Eileen Ramona Petersen was named Chairwoman of the Virgin Islands Casino Commission—the first person to hold the post—retiring from the position in 2004 after eight years of dedicated service, and after firmly establishing the then-nascent entity as viable and sustainable.
“Set your standards,” she would oftentimes say to the many she mentored and inspired. “Set your own standards, and keep to them. Don’t let the naysayers dissuade or discourage you. Know who you are, and do what you know is right.”
Eileen was a staunch advocate for children’s rights and women’s rights. But she also looked after the boys and young men: At a time when women were not appointed to leadership and influential positions within the esteemed Boy Scouts of America (BSA), Eileen R. Petersen became the first woman to serve on the Virgin Islands Council of the Boy Scouts of America, thereby becoming the first woman in the entire Northeast Region to hold such a post.
“Whenever I was feeling discouraged during my years at Howard law,” said godson Jeffrey Moorhead, “I would go to the photo of her in the hall of the law school for inspiration. Just seeing her photo would inspire me…. My great godmother….”
And Eileen held her judgeship with the Municipal/Territorial Court of the Virgin Islands from 1971 to 1992, appointed by Governor Melvin Evans, and re-appointed to the bench by Governors Cyril King and Juan Luis.At her swearing-in ceremony in 1971, she had to wear her own dress: No one thought to order her a robe for the auspicious occasion. She was not assigned her judge’s chamber for six months, requiring her to work from her own car. Her male counterparts, apparently, assumed that she would resign from her judgeship in frustration. But they were wrong: She remained on the bench for 21 years. And she kept her swearing-in dress as a reminder of her journey, proudly displaying it at her hillside home overlooking Estate La Grande Princesse.
But with all the achievements and accolades of a stellar career, what is perhaps most remarkable about Eileen is the grace with which she achieved it all: Despite the hardships of her life, she never lost her sweet, gentle nature. She is the definition of grit with grace.
Eileen, the Friend
“Eileen was bright,” said Frances Moore [Moorhead] [Molloy], who, having graduated from St. Mary’s Catholic School on St. Croix in 1954, entered Hampton the same year as Eileen, both women earning their degrees in 1959 after completing their respective five-year programs.
Though they did not know each other as children growing up on St. Croix, the two young women met at Hampton and remained lifelong friends: Eileen stood as godmother to Frances’ first-born child Jeffrey Moorhead in 1961; both women pledged the Mu Gamma Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., in 1983 (Graduate Chapter), along with Ingrid Bough, Rigmerle Ponteen, Patricia Fabio, Aracelis Bermudez Walcott, Sandra Bean, and Ruth Wilson; and in 2010, Eileen, Frances, Dr. Yvonne Thraen, Rigmerle Ponteen, and and Judge Ishmael Meyers and his wife Gwendolyn embarked on a 31-day cruise that journeyed to South America, Africa, and Asia.
“It was on that cruise that I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Eileen was suffering from dementia,” said Frances Molloy, pausing briefly as if having to steady herself to say the words. “I had noticed glimpses of it from as early as 2006, when Eileen would joke about her forgetfulness, explaining the episodes away as ‘senior moments.’ But on that 2010 cruise, Eileen could never find her cabin key (though it would always be in her purse), her passport, or her cabin itself. That’s when I knew for sure.”
And by 2013, when Eileen’s New York-based half-siblings (and their heirs) by father Hugo R. Petersen and his wife Theophilia Boynes [Brown] Petersen—Patricia, Gloria, Charles, and Sonny—began taking steps towards becoming Eileen’s legal guardian, Eileen’s extended family and friends, led by Fern Joseph McAlphin (daughter of Eileen’s half-first-cousin Helen Francis Joseph of Eileen’s Leevy line) and Oran Roebuck, and assisted by Frances Molloy, successfully challenged the siblings in the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands, guardianship of ailing Eileen bestowed upon McAlphin and Roebuck.
Shortly thereafter, Eileen was quietly and unceremoniously sent to a nursing home on the mainland before returning to St. Croix to live out her last days at a nursing home on St. Croix, succumbing on April 25, 2023.
But whether off-island or on-island, and despite visitation restrictions, Eileen’s friends remained loyal: Frances Molloy; Ada Brooks; Gloria Huggins Canegata; Verna Christian Garcia; Charlene Springer; Eileen’s cousin Nils Leevy; Gloria Joseph; Yvonne Thraen; MaeAgnes Clendenen [O’Reilly] [George]; the offspring of the late Juan Garcia and Felicita James Garcia of Estate Contentment; and, of course, the offspring of Cynthia Nesbitt Francis and Leroy Francis, Eileen’s de facto immediate family.
For Eileen, friends and family were one in the same. Such was the way she was raised. Such was the legacy of Mary and David Brandon, who raised Eileen’s mother Anna Leevy and then Eileen in her very early years, and such was the way of the family of Cynthia and Leroy Francis, the household in which Eileen lived like daughter and like big sister from about 1945 to 1966.
Eileen’s Crucian Lineage
But Eileen, with her curious nature, always sought her biological roots on St. Croix, knowing that her father descended from a long line of Crucians. As such, she would always accept as family any James or Petersen who claimed relations. But it was in her middle years that she began learning from which specific James and Petersen lines she descends: The Jameses of Estates Hermitage and Big Fountain, and the Petersens of Estate Slob.
Eileen’s father Hugo Petersen (1914-1994) is the son of Anna Rebecca James Petersen (b. 1883) and Charles Augustus Petersen (b. 1882). Anna Rebecca James [Petersen] is the daughter of Adam James (b. 1856) at Estate Big Fountain and Frankie Jackson [James]. And Adam James is the son of Augustina James [James] (1827-1916) of Big Fountain and Johannes James (b. 1825) of Estate Hermitage. Augustina James is the daughter of James (called “Jim”) of Big Fountain, born in Africa in 1790 and brought to St. Croix in 1794, and Henriette, born on St. Croix. Both Jim and Henriette were staunch Moravians. Johannes James is the son of Adam James (b. at Estate Hermitage in 1801) and Helena. Both were staunch Moravians (though Adam was baptized Anglican in 1801). Adam of 1801 is the son of James, who is listed in the 1773 Slave List as a boy “under 12.” And James is the son of Adam, listed on said Slave List as “macrone” (too infirm to work, presumably because of his advanced age). The James line from which Eileen descends, therefore, reaches back into the earliest years of St. Croix’s Danish-era history, Adam, the patriarch of the James line, believed to have been born around 1720, thirteen (13) years before the Danish acquisition of St. Croix in 1733.
On Eileen’s Petersen line, her father Hugo Petersen (1914-1994) is the son of Charles Augustus Petersen (b. 1882) and Anna Rebecca James [Petersen] (b. 1883). Charles Augustus Petersen is the son of Andrew Petersen, born October 13, 1853 to Johannes Petersen (b. 1825), a cooper at Estate Slob, and Susannah Allick (b. 1835) at Estate Slob. Andrew of 1853 fathered Charles of 1882 with Cecelia Taylor of Estate Cane Valley.
Thus, unbeknownst to Eileen for much of her life, she had multitudes of James and Petersen relatives to whom she could trace her lineage, with documentation, back to the slaving vessels that brought her forefathers across the Atlantic Ocean’s infamous Middle Passage: The James-Hewitt’s of Estate Rattan, like Eileen’s grandmother Anna Rebecca James [Petersen] descend from Adam James, born at Big Fountain in 1856; and I. Gateword James (1893-1978) and his Frederiksted descendants, all come from Adam’s brother Lucas, born at Estate Big Fountain in 1859. As such, hundreds of Jameses and Petersens are Eileen’s paternal blood relatives.
But Eileen never married and had no biological children. But to a woman like Eileen, with the legacy she inherited from the Brandons and the Francises, family is primarily a socio-emotional, not biological, construct. And, as such, the people of the Virgin Islands, whom she loved dearly, are her family.
Unlike the four queens of the 1878 Fireburn, namely Susannah “Bottom Belly” Abrahamsen (1831-1906), Mary Thomas (1842-1905), Axeline “Agnes” Solomon (1854-1904), and Mathilda McBean (1857-1935), Eileen did not burn the roads and trails of St. Croix in pursuit of justice. Instead, Eileen serves as trailblazer for future generations, having cleared the road by her example of excellence.
St. Croix: The Birthplace of Emancipation in the United States of America
The United States Virgin Islands—the cluster of central-Caribbean islands consisting principally of St. Croix, St. John, and St. Thomas—is the cradle of Emancipation in the United States of America: Slavery was abolished in the Virgin Islands (then, the Danish West Indies) on July 3, 1848, seventeen (17) years before the 1865 Emancipation on mainland USA and the 1873 abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico. And the 1848 Emancipation in the Virgin Islands was precipitated by rebellion rather than proclamation. As such, the Virgin Islands has served as a Beacon of Freedom across three centuries—from the middle of the 19th century, throughout the 20th century, to present-day.
July 3, 2023, marks the 175th Anniversary of Emancipation in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and celebratory events will extend until July 3, 2024.
Like the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) led by black liberator Toussaint Louverture, the July 1848 rebellion on St. Croix was led by enslaved John “General Budhoe” Gottlieb (also spelled Gutliff). Undetected by the plantocracy and the Danish militia, approximately 8,000 slaves—about 40 percent of St. Croix’s total enslaved population of approximately 20,000—marched to Fort Frederik in the town of Frederiksted and demanded their freedom. In order to avoid widespread violence and loss of life, Governor-General Peter von Scholten declared the enslaved immediately free.
“Except for Haiti and St. Croix, all other emancipations in the history of Trans-Atlantic Slavery, beginning with the British in 1834 and ending with Brazil in 1888, were accomplished by proclamation,” said Wayne James, former senator of the United States Virgin Islands and president of the Homeward Bound Foundation (HBF), the organization that, on July 3, 1999, in recognition of the closing of the foundation’s year-long celebrations to mark the 150th Anniversary of Emancipation in the Virgin Islands, lowered the 12-foot tall, 17-foot wide Middle Passage Monument onto the floor of the Atlantic Ocean’s infamous Middle Passage, thereby placing a gravestone onto what has been described as the World’s Largest Graveyard. “This year’s 175th Anniversary of Emancipation in the U.S. Virgin Islands allows the entire nation to participate in the discussion,” James added. “All Americans should know that the U.S. Virgin Islands cleared the path to freedom, not only serving as a southern stop on the Underground Railroad, but also inspiring discourse on liberation.”
Consistent with its mission of 25 years ago, the Homeward Bound Foundation is gearing up to invite Denmark; the United States, with special attention being paid to collaborations with the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and the National Caucus of Black State Legislators (NCBSL); and the international community to a series of socio-historical events and educational programming aimed at heightening awareness of the post-Emancipation contributions of Africans to the cultural evolution of the world.https://millenniumarch.wordpress.com
“Anniversaries afford an opportune time to look back,” James said. “But they also allow us to look forward with clearer, more informed vision. This 175th Anniversary celebratory year of Emancipation in what is today the United States Virgin Islands will be an excellent platform for the world to look at race relations, artistic collaborations, scholarship, and cultural exchanges. And the Homeward Bound Foundation looks forward to again playing a key role in those discussions,” James concluded.
50-Year Search Results in Massive Discovery of Cuban History
Since 1973, from the tender age of 11, Wayne James has been on a mission: to find a complete set of the Henry Clay and Bock & Co., Ltd., cigar company’s 1925 “Cuba Series” photographs. The half-a-century search is finally over: James has unearthed—and acquired—not one, but four, sets of the exceedingly rare photos, all on the Iberian Peninsula. The find is the collectors’ equivalent of discovering a trove of beautifully preserved, 100-year-old baseball cards. The photos are captioned and depict the farms, factories, bridges, statuary, political leaders, schools, churches, mansions, casinos, country clubs, parks, etc., of Cuba’s six provinces.
In August of 2022, James had a great breakthrough when he learned, for the first time, that the complete 1925 “Cuba Series” contains 1,670 images. Since then, he also discovered that a Spanish antiquarian sold an incomplete set containing 1,321 of the 1,670 images in 2017, and that the National Library of Cuba has a set in its holding, but it is unclear whether it is a complete set. In the United States, the University of Miami’s Cuban Heritage Collection, the largest repository of Cuban documents outside Cuba, contains a set donated by one Paul Salgueiro, but that set has less than half of the 1,670 images.
So, on Monday, December 5, 2022, when a random Google search led James to a Cadiz, Spain, antiquarian who was selling a complete set of the 1925 “Cuba Series” photographs, James was understandably exhilarated.
“I have been searching high and low for these photos since I first inherited about 100 of them from my maternal great-uncle [Cornelius] Alphonso Messer (1896-1973) upon his death,” James said. “And over the years, I have found caches here and there, almost always in Europe. Between 2004, when I found 250 of the precious photos in Barcelona, Spain, and May of 2022, when I purchased 350 at auction, I had amassed a collection totaling more than 800 image.”
Wayne James’ fortuitous connection to the Henry Clay and Bock & Co., Ltd., “Cuba Series” photographs began more than a century ago. In 1918, James’ maternal great-uncle Alexander Messer, born on St. Croix in 1888 to Christian Messer (1859-1927) and Andrina Prince Messer (1865-1941), migrated to Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, as a laborer in the great Caribbean island’s thriving sugarcane industry and to play music. Beginning in the mid-1920s, to share pictorial images of his adopted Cuban homeland with his family on St. Croix, Alexander would occasionally enclose the Henry Clay and Bock & Co., Ltd., “Cuba Series” photos in his letters to his parents and siblings. Alexander’s younger brother Alphonso safeguarded the photos at the family’s ancestral home in Frederiksted, St. Croix, for almost 50 years before the nascent collection of approximately 100 images passed to Wayne James.
On March 27, 2022, inspired by his dear, dear Cuban friend Luis C. Garcia-Menocal, great-grandson of Cuba’s third president, Mario Garcia-Menocal, James premiered Going…Going…Gone: The Grandeur of Golden-Age Cuba, a 3-part docufilm produced by Kiwaun Cumberbath and done in the emerging “quiltography” genre, featuring approximately 500 of the “Cuba Series” images within the context of Post-Revolution Cuban history and voluptuously supported by score after score of music by Cuba’s greatest 19th-century composers. The film has been met with critical acclaim, receiving a glowing review on the front page of Havana Times, for example, and is available free of charge on Youtube.
Originally issued as sequentially numbered album collectibles for the preferred customers of the Henry Clay and Bock & Co., Ltd., cigar company, very few of the photo-cards have survived the ravages of time. Occasionally, one or two are offered for sale on the internet for prices ranging from 5-25 Euros a piece, but rarely are clusters of the photos offered for sale. But after 50 years of painstaking collecting, James has emerged as the world’s foremost collector of the “Cuba Series” photographs. In 2009, while serving as Senator of the United States Virgin Islands, he donated a copy of 250 of the images to the library of the University of Havana, which, prior to the gift, had had no archival knowledge of the photos. And now that he has amassed four originally bound sets of the photos, James will donate them to various academic institutions in 2025 to mark the 100th anniversary of the issuance of the photographs: the University of Miami’s Cuban Heritage Collection; the libraries of James’ Almae Matres, Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, and Georgetown University in Washington, DC; and New York’s The Schomburg Center. A digital file will be made available online for all the world to have access to the collection. And plans are underway to select 400 of the most stunning and important images for publication in a large-scale coffee table book.
“Finding these rare photographs has been a labor of love,” James said. “My intention was always to find them in order to preserve them, then to share them. Thus, the bountiful Universe has blessed me with the good fortune to rescue them from the clutches of obscurity so that the whole world can see, in perpetuity, the greatness that once was Cuba,” James concluded.
Wayne James Directs Spectacular TV Ad to Promote His New Fragrance, CELEBRATION
St. Croix-born fashion designer Wayne James has directed a spectacular 60-second television ad to promote the unveiling of his new fragrance, CELEBRATION.
The CELEBRATION ad is produced in the emerging “quiltography” genre by critically acclaimed Brazilian filmmaker/photographer Daniel Lobo, who has collaborated with James on many projects for more than a decade—including photographing the covers of volumes one and two of the designer’s Manly Manners treatise on modern men’s comportment.
The ad is a veritable feast for the eyes. Voluptuous frame after voluptuous frame, the ad transports the viewer around the world in fewer than 80 seconds via the great celebrations of the globe, from Rio de Janeiro’s sensuous carnival, to India’s Holi Festival of colorful powders, to the Argentinean people erupting in ecstasy upon winning the 2022 World Cup.
“I wanted the ad to speak directly to the name of the fragrance, ‘CELEBRATION’, “ James said. “Enough with those ephemeral scents with those intangible names with their mysterious ads. I wanted a fragrance with a distinctive personality and a supporting ad that says what it means and means what it says, even if without the utterance of a single word.”
To capture in a bottle the fragrance that James had envisioned in his mind’s nose, he travelled to Grasse, France, fragrance capital of the world. There, he met with renowned perfumer Patrick Bodifee, esteemed worldwide as a great “nose,” and asked him to formulate a unique, memorable fragrance around a few key ingredients: the skins of lime and pineapple, ginger, vanilla, and passion fruit, with tantalizingly elusive hints of nutmeg, frankincense, and myrrh. Two months later, James received the test-samples. Originally conceived as a fragrance for men in keeping with James’ persona as a guru of modern men’s lifestyle, market-testing proved CELEBRATION’s appeal to men and women alike. Thus, the marketing has evolved as decidedly gender-neutral.
“We artists speak a lingua franca called ‘Artish’, “ James said. “We understand each other instinctively. And what Mr. Bodifee presented to me was precisely what I had envisioned. No redo, no edit, nothing.”
The fashion designer’s experience with young French graphics artist Pauline Lieb was similar: a few words, and voila! Simply asked to design elegant, gender-neutral packaging for the elegant, gender-neutral fragrance, Lieb selected a teal-turquoise shade of blue and paired it with accents pf metallic gold to achieve the fragrance’s exquisite packaging.
CELEBRATION will be unveiled on July 3, 2023, in celebration of the 175th anniversary of Emancipation in the formed Danish West Indies (present-day United States Virgin Islands) and will be available at select stores worldwide and online at www.WayneJamesLtd.com
Fierce at 40: Wayne James’ Journey Through Four Decades of Fashion
The Wayne James fashion label will celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2027. And to mark that milestone, much is abuzz at Wayne James, Ltd: A researcher has been retained to cull the designer’s major press reports, beginning with the March 1, 1987 Washington Post article announcing his first collection showing in New York’s SoHo while in his last semester of law school at Georgetown; James’ Carnival Seasonings line has been expanded and rebranded as Wayne James’ Seasonings for Men; a fashion historian is preparing a feature on the designer’s remarkable contributions to African American fashion history; and on July 3, 2023, James will launch CELEBRATION, his new French-made fragrance. Two more fragrances will be launched by 2027.
“One of the reasons for my longevity in this fickle industry called fashion is my autonomy—forty years after my debut, I still own 100% of Wayne James, Ltd.,” James said. “Over the decades, I’ve witnessed designers touted as ‘The Toast of 7th Avenue,’ ‘The New Darling of Fashion,’ ‘The Next Big Thing,’ fall by the wayside of New York’s at once famed and infamous Garment District,” he continues, “But I’ve never had backers and investors. So, I’ve always answered first and foremost to my artistic vision and to my customers. Yes, my garments are lined in silk. And yes, I use New York manufacturers even though they are more expensive than overseas ones. And yes, I insist on exquisite linen. But so what? It’s what I want, and its what my customers demand. And no boardroom bores can tell me otherwise.”
And it was Wayne James’ “boss-moves bravado” that inspired him to first launch his condiments line 30 years ago, in 1993, and now his fragrance, CELEBRATION, in 2023. And between those two benchmarks have been the designer’s Manly Manners books on modern male comportment (2016, 2017); his foray into filmmaking, yielding the 3-part, 6-hour docufilm on Cuba titled The Grandeur of Golden-Age Cuba (2022); and his internationally acclaimed Middle Passage Monument Project, which, in 1999, earned him the International Humanitarian Award in Paris, France.
“Fashion is, by definition, an ever-changing industry,” James said. “You can’t be a successful designer and be stagnant. We must constantly invent and re-invent—not only fashion, but oftentimes ourselves—if we are to remain relevant in an ever-changing environment.”
In many ways, Wayne James was tailor-made for fashion. His paternal great-great-great-great-grandmother, Africa-born Azontha (1785-August 3, 1857), who arrived to St. Croix from Africa onboard a slaving vessel at the tender age of 13, was a seamstress [and therefore, in those days, a designer] at the Annaly Plantation. Azontha was so devoted to her profession that she took the plantation’s manager to court in 1821 for attempting to make her cut sugarcane rather than create garments. James’ mother, Evelyn Messer James (1931-2022) was one of five sisters, four of whom mastered the art of dressmaking such that they could make, “freehand,” the glamorous designer garments they would see gracing the pages of Vogue in the 1940s, ‘50s, and ‘60s. And James, one of 10 children, saw his five beautiful, elegant sisters, the tallest of whom stands 6’2”, getting dressed in the latest fashions.
“I grew up surrounded by beautiful people wearing beautiful garments. The best fashion magazines and beauty products were always in the house,” James said. “So, it was only natural for me to gravitat towards the beauty industry.”
By the age of 14, James had already achieved his adulthood height of 6’4”. And with his wide shoulders, long neck, and elegant carriage, it was only a matter of time before he found himself immersed in the world of modeling. His body was built to showcase clothing.
“At age 15, Ralph Wilson recruited me to join C.C. Models [Caribbean Couture Models]. In those days, back in the mid-to-late ‘70s, anybody who was young and beautiful joined C.C. Models. In many ways, modeling with C.C. was our first rendezvous with the beaty business,” James recalls.
During the latter half of his high school years, James worked part-time at The Jeans Shop [Caribbean Clothing Company], owned and operated by Mark Ferdschneider and Tom Miller. And it was there that James got first-had experience with the business end of fashion: selling. Young James even accompanied the store’s owners on a buying-trip to New York, the owner’s allowing him to place a few orders for collections that he thought, based on his retail experience at the store, would sell well.
“My tenure at The Jeans Shop was invaluable,” James said. “I learned that simplicity sells. That clothing must be designed to fit different body-types. That most people aren’t built like fashion models.”
An English literature major during his undergraduate years at Bradley University, James graduated at the top of the department in 1983. But while at Bradley, while burning the proverbial “midnight oil” as he read Shakespeare and Milton and Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, James honed his fashion skills.
“Each year, during Garret Week [a week to honor Bradley’s first Master’s Degree graduate, African American scholar Romeo B. Garrett], James would choreograph an on-campus fashion show and curate the campus’ most beautiful students to model for the event.
Thus, when James entered Georgetown’s Law Center in the fall of 1984, it was with a singular mission: to earn a Juris Doctorate in order to become a fashion designer. And from the first semester of his first year of lawl school, he started organizing what would become Wayne James, Ltd.
“I knew that I had a one-shot opportunity to make my entrance into the fashion world. And if that didn’t work, I would have to, regrettably, practice law,” James said. “So, I decided to build my first collection around the hand-knitting tradition of the descendants of the Incas. And to get the wool and the knitters, I went high up into the Andes Mountains of Ecuador to engage the Otavalo natives to craft the collection of sweaters, sweater-dresses, and sweater-skirt sets. The result was a never-before-seen collection that was at once rustic and urbane, colorful and hued, classic but modern,” James said. “I relied upon their age-old traditions of working with wool, and I combined that with my worldly sensibilities,” James said.
After travelling to Ecuador—with his textbooks—for weeks at a time in the midst of the fall and spring semesters of his second year of law school, James had his precious samples. And in the summer of 1986, just before beginning his third and final year of law school (and after doing a summer law clerkship with one of the judges of the Territorial Court of the United States Virgin Islands), James conducted the first official fashion shoot of his career, relying upon many of his C.C. Models friends, Lisa Galiber, who had gone on to model in Miami then Copenhagen and Italy before gracing the pages of French Vogue and the front cover of London’s Caribbean World, serving as muse for James’ collection and fashion shoot. Cornell University-educated photographer Harvey Ferdschneider, brother of Mark Ferdschneider of The Jeans Shop, was flown in to St. Croix from New York for the photoshoot.
Photos in hand and collection samples in boxes, James started his last year of law school in the fall of 1986. And in February of 1987, Virgin Islands Director of Tourism Leona Bryant called a contact at the Washington Post and asked her to introduce James to the paper’s fashion editor. James’ interview in the Washington Post was published on March 1, 1987, generating a buzz on the campus of the venerated university.
“I showed my first collection on March 30, 1987, at the Anita Shapolsky Gallery at 99 Spring Street in SoHo,” James recalls. “I asked some of the most picturesque Georgetown undergrads to be my models, and they were thrilled to do it. The New York fashion press showed up for the showing, and I was on my way as a designer,” James said.
A week later, on April 6, 1987, New York’s esteemed Bergdorf Goodman bought the exclusive New York rights to James’ first collection.
“After the showing, I was staying at the St. Moritz Hotel, Central Park South. I made the appointment to show the collection to Bergdorf’s designer sportswear buyer Pat Henderson. She had studied costume design at New York’s F.I.T. (Fashion Institute of Technology), so she was more than a buyer; she was a designer and a buyer,” James recounts. “When I showed her the collection, she let out a scream: ‘Oh my God! These are gorgeous! The colors!’ “
Henderson then got on the phone and called her mother: “Here in my office, right now, is this tall, elegant, handsome, Georgetown law school student and his hand-knits. They are so beautiful, I want to eat them!”
Immediately after her brief chat with her mother, Henderson pulled out a Bergdorf Goodman purchase order and hand-wrote an order on the spot.
“I can’t give you as big an order as Macy’s. But what I can give you is Bergdorf’s name. And the name ‘Bergdorf Goodman’ will open doors for you in this business. But I’ll need to get the exclusive Manhattan rights to the collection. Agreed?”
James agreed. And it was a decision he would never regret. He would forever be able to say that his very first account was the great Bergdorf Goodman.
“While in the throes of pulling the collection together, and amidst all the angst associated with abandoning a prestigious legal education to embark instead upon a career in fashion, I had asked God to give me a sign that I was making the right decision,” James said. “And the contract from Bergdorf’s, the nation’s premiere retailer of designer garments, was my sign. I started out on the top. Bergdorf’s had, and still has, no equal.”
James went on to sell his garments in fine stores around the world, and his career has been chronicled in practically every major fashion publication, from the Washington Post, the New York Times, and UPI (United Press International), to Women’s Wear Daily (WWD) and the Daily News Record (DNR), and from Elle Magazine to Ebony, Essence, and Jet, to GQ. By James’ side during the early years was his dear, dear Georgetown friend, Shahryar Hakimi.
“Just when things got so hectic that I felt like I needed a clone, Shahryar postposed his practice of law to help me build the company. We worked side-by-side for five years (1990-95). I am a designer today because of Shahryar’s invaluable contributions to Wayne James, Ltd.,” James said.
“Introducing a fragrance is no small undertaking,” James continues. “But it’s a great milestone for a design house. A peacock must have a fanciful tail; a bull must have a formidable horn; and a designer must have a fabulous fragrance. I have started the conversation with Bergdorf Goodman regarding that venerable retailer serving as the situs for the New York launch of CELEBRATION.
“The journey from fashion shoot to fragrance has been a most fascinating one,” James said. “And I couldn’t have done it alone. Surviving and thriving in the arts is no walk in the park. There have been lots of lifelines thrown by friends, family, and strangers alike, And I’ve always remained committed to the mission: to create beautiful things.”
CELEBRATION will be officially unveiled on July 3, 2023, in recognition of the 175th anniversary of Emancipation in the Danish West Indies. CELEBRATION will be available in select stores worldwide and online at www.WayneJamesLtd.com
Fashion Designer Wayne James to Launch “Celebration” Fragrance in July
St. Croix-born fashion designer Wayne James, whose career in the glamor industry now spans four decades, will unveil his fragrance, CELLEBRATION, in July of 2023.
“A peacock must have a fanciful tail. A bull must have a formidable horn. And a fashion designer must have a fabulous fragrance,” James responded when asked about his decision to launch CELEBRATION on the heels of his autumn 2021 expansion and rebranding of his seasonings line as Wayne James’ Seasonings for Men.
Formulated in Grasse, France, perfume capital of the world, and presented in exquisite bottles crafted in Milan, Italy, CELEBRATION is an eau de toilette made to stand the test of time.
“I wanted to create a classic fragrance that can withstand the whims of the beauty industry,” James said. “And I wanted a fragrance with a distinctive allure—not just another citrus or musk or floral or woodsy fragrance.”
So, to achieve his goal, James, in May of 2010 while attending the Cannes Film Festival, met with renowned French “nose” Patrick Bodifee, presenting the perfumer with the key ingredients for the fragrance: the skins of lime and pineapple; ginger; vanilla; passion fruit; sandalwood; and an intriguing hint of nutmeg.
“The meeting was short and sweet: Bodifee and I sat alongside each other at a conference table—I in a navy linen suit, and he in his white laboratory coat—and I simply expressed to him my essential vision and scent-profile for the fragrance,” James said. “Two months later, I received Bodifee’s interpretation of my vision. What he captured in the bottle is precisely what I had smelled in my mind’s nose.”
Originally envisioned as a fragrance for men in keeping with James’ persona as an influencer of men’s lifestyle, preliminary testing of CELEBRATION revealed that women like it too. Thus, consistent with the modern trend of gender-neutral marketing of fragrances, James is simply presenting the fragrance as CELEBRATION.
And to create packaging that would appeal to men, women, and non-binary persons, James enlisted the services of young, up-and-coming, French graphics artist Pauline Lieb.
“Ms. Lieb gave me exactly what I had hoped for: classic, distinguished packaging that transcends gender,” James said.
In March of 1987, while in his last semester of law school at prestigious Georgetown University, Wayne James presented his first fashion collection in New York. The esteemed Bergdorf Goodman purchased the New York exclusive to the collection that year, and James went on to sell his garments in department stores such as Nordstrom’s in the United States and to chic boutiques such as Victoire’s in Paris and Saks Jandel in Washington, DC. In his enduring career in the arts, James has also distinguished himself in the literary, culinary, and filmmaking arenas.
An ad campaign for both television and social media is being developed to promote CELEBRATION. And the official unveiling of the fragrance will take place on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands on July 3, 2023, in celebration of the 175th anniversary of Emancipation in the former Danish West Indies.
Beginning in July, CELEBRATION will be available in select stores worldwide and online at www.WayneJamesLtd.com
Miami’s “Freedom Tower,” the launching-pad of the “New Grand Tour.”
From the dawning of civilization—from the moment mankind abandoned its hunting-and-gathering existence for the more sedentary ways of agriculture and city dwelling—burning in the bosoms of young men has been the desire to explore faraway lands. Whether inspired by the tales of adventurers such as Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus, young men have long known that travel can unravel many of the wonders of the world. But for most men throughout human history, the horizon is elusive: The faster one approaches it, the faster it moves away. Journeying to the far-flung regions of the world, therefore, was for the privileged few.
And even today, despite the conveniences and relative affordability of modern transportation, many young men still believe that international travel is a luxury beyond their means—that, perhaps, except for the almost-proverbial “going off to Europe to find oneself” that some young men undertake almost as a rite of passage into adulthood, extensive travel is an undertaking to be enjoyed during retirement age. But, alas, climbing the Great Pyramids of Egypt or masquerading with Rio de Janeiro’s Mangueira Samba School is better done at age 25 than 65.
Despite the at-the-fingertips ease with which the Information Age (with its YouTube travel programs, adventure blogs, and destination podcasts) has availed the outer reaches of the world to 21st-century young men, good, old-fashioned travel, whether by luxury train, dirt bike, ocean liner, or airplane, for example, remains the best way for a young gentleman to experience the oneness and the diversity of humanity. Travel is still the ultimate teacher of the ways of the world. Thus, it is still possible to see young men, in their early adulthood, attempting to “find themselves” as they slumber atop their satchels in the great train stations of the world.
Backgroundr
By the 1440s, the Iberian powers of Portugal and Spain had embarked upon the Atlantic Slave Trade, establishing colonies, fueled by enslaved Africans, in the islands just off the west coast of Africa: Sao Tome and Principe; the Cape Verde Islands; the Azores; Madeira; and the Canary Islands, And by the end of that century, beginning with Christopher Columbus’ encounter with the New World, the other powers of Western Europe were poised to exploit the Americas. By the middle of the 1500s, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, with all its sordid components, was well on its way.
Unlike their Western European counterparts of the 16th century, the powerful city-states of the Italian Peninsula—Venice, Genoa, Naples, Rome, Siena, Pisa, and Florence—occupied themselves, not with the inhumane business of slavery, but, instead, with beauty. Led by Florence, Italy was busy with the Renaissance.
Consequently, by the middle of the 17th century, Western Europe had become enriched by its New World colonies, and Italy had created priceless works of art, becoming a veritable museum the size of the present-day State of California.
History of the Grand Tour
The great Colosseum of Rome, completed in 80 A.D.
There was a time, a long, long time ago, from about 1660, when the Renaissance was in its twilight, to circa 1840, with the coming of steamships and the laying of railroads, that young Englishmen of the high-ranking aristocracy and landed gentry would embark upon a cultural excursion across Western Europe, the highlight of the sojourn being the artistic treasures of Italy.
At around the age of 21, typically upon completing their university studies, these young men or extraordinary means would set out in pursuit cross-cultural edification.
The term “Grand Tour” was first used to describe the European sojourn by expatriate Catholic priest Richard Lassels in his book The Voyage of Italy, published posthumously in 1670 in Paris, then in London. But the precedent for the tradition was set decades earlier when the Earl of Arundel, along with his wife and children, toured Italy, as far south as Naples, from 1613-1614.
An English “Grand Tourist” would leave Dover, England, and sail across the English Channel to Ostend, Belgium, or to the French ports of Calais or Le Havre. Once on the continent, he would assemble his entourage: a French-speaking translator, since French was at the time the lingua franca of Europe; a “cicerone” (a guide); a “bear-leader” (a tutor); as well as valet, cook, coachman, etc., depending on the gentleman’s finances.
There was no set itinerary for the Grand Tour, which typically lasted from several months to several years, depending on a gentleman’s financial wherewithal and his areas of interest. But Paris, France, for its cuisine, courtly manners, and dance instructors, and the entire Italian peninsula, for its artistic legacy dating back to antiquity and culminating with the Renaissance, were de facto obligatory.
Whether over land in horse-drawn carriages, or by riverboat up the Seine to Paris or the Rhine to Basel, the traveler would make his way across Europe, all the way to Geneva, Switzerland, before crossing the Alps in order to make his way to great Italy, the highlight of the journey. Carriages could be disassembled for the passage through the Alps, then reassembled again.
But the Grand Tour was not reserved for English gentry alone. Artists endeavoring to learn the techniques of drawing, painting, and sculpture would embark upon the Tour, even if on an artist’s budget. And gentlemen of means from Central and Northern Europe, as well as those from the continents of North America and South America, also toured. And by the second half of the 19th century, when the Tour was waning in popularity, young women—especially the daughters of the Industrial Age tycoons of the United States—would do the Tour, oftentimes accompanied (and chaperoned) by a spinster aunt or some other female relative.
Over the generations, certain destinations on the Tour would rise and fall in popularity: When Pompeii and Hurculaneum, buried in 79 A.D. by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, were excavated in the middle of the 1700s, they immediately became “must-visits” on the Tour; and Greece, the cradle of Western Civilization, would occasionally be attempted via yacht from Italy, depending on the political climate in the region on account of the Ottoman occupation of Greece for much of the period coinciding with the popularity of the Grand Tour (1422 – 1821).
Having absorbed the refinements of European culture, collecting objets d’art along the way (including the almost-obligatory portrait by an Italian artist of the young gentleman standing proudly alongside one of the reliquaries of antiquity), the typical Grand Tour gentleman would make his way back home via Northern Europe, visiting Stockholm and Copenhagen before indulging in the great artistic tradition of Holland.
The New Grand Tour
Today, a young man can forge friendships the world over via social media. Air travel is affordable, and the automobile and highway networks have facilitated transcontinental travel. Handheld mobile devices can translate many of the world’s major languages. And besides hotels and hostels, young men can book accommodations by contacting homeowners directly through services such as Airbnb. And who needs a cicerone or a bear-leader when there are GPS, “Hey, Siri” and Wikipedia? Furthermore, with cash apps such as PayPal and Zelle, and the conveniences of ATMs and debit cards, accessing money while abroad is a non-issue.
But unlike the Grand Tour, which, owing to the pervasive xenophobia of the era confined itself to the European continent, the New Grand Tour knows no borders, no boundaries; it endeavors to avail the beauty of the world to the citizens of the world. As such, the great destinations of New World, of Africa, and Asia and Oceania are included.
Long gone are the travel entourages and retinues, with steamers and trunks stuffed with the accoutrements of gentlemanliness. Instead, the modern gentleman embarks upon his New Grand Tour with nothing more than a backpack or a wheeled carry-on, knowing that whatever he needs but does not have, he’ll simply purchase along the way. He chronicles his journey on social media for all to see in real time. And whatever mementos he acquires will be shipped home via mail services with up-to-the-minute package tracking systems.
Unlike the Grand Tour, which for the Englishman typically began in Dover, the New Grand Tour begins in Miami, the gateway to the Americas. Miami’s Freedom Tower is Latin America’s equivalent of New York’s Statue of Liberty.
The New Itinerary
As was the case with the traditional Grand Tour, there is no set itinerary for the New Grand Tour. The modern gentleman is expected to blaze his own trail. But key stops are emerging….
The Emerging Itinerary
Trunk Bay on St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, regarded as the world’s most beautiful beach.
Departing Miami, the first stop on the emerging “standard” New Grand Tour itinerary is the Caribbean, which, because of its colonial and subsequent immigration history, is a microcosm of the world. That breathtakingly beautiful archipelago, outlined by some of the world’s most spectacular sandy beaches, has many destinations to offer, some of the most notable being Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic (site of the oldest European city in the New World), Puerto Rico (especially “Old San Juan”), the United States Virgin Islands (St. John’s Trunk Bay and St. Thomas’ Magen’s Bay regularly ranked amongst the world’s top ten beaches, while St. Croix’s Buck Island and Sandy Point, both National Parks, featuring unique wildlife in addition to unmatched beaches), sophisticated Barbados, diverse Trinidad and Tobago, and the “ABC” islands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao.
Cartagena, Colombia.
From the eternal warmth of the Caribbean, the next stop is typically on the magnificent continent of South America, the 500-year-old walled Spanish colonial city of Cartagena, Colombia, being a “must-see.” Some men seize the opportunity of proximity to experience the marvel of mankind that is the Panama Canal or the Mayan pyramids of Belize, while others leave Cartagena for the splendors of Lima, Peru, with its magnificent city squares that rival those of Europe and the ornate balconies of “cedro de Nicaragua” wood that characterize the town’s commanding buildings. “Quito Viejo” is just as impressive, if not quite as grand, as Lima. In colonial Quito, block after block of Spanish baroque architecture defines the city.
After Quito, next on the itinerary is usually a plane ride over the mighty Amazon to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. And if a gentleman is lucky enough to be in Rio during its famed carnival, he is sure to fall in love with both city and citizen, for Rio is arguably the most dramatically situated city on Earth, its site seemingly handpicked by gods, and its multi-racial population is known for more-than-occasionally producing people of extraordinary physical beauty.
Breathtakingly beautiful Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
A seven-hour plane ride from Rio to Lisbon puts a gentleman at the gateway of the Old World, Lisbon being at once the proverbial “hop, skip, and jump” away from Africa and the magnificent Mediterranean. Built on a hillside that slopes down to the sea, Lisbon (or “Lisboa” as the Portuguese call her) is one of the world’s most picturesque cities. And, of course, once in Portugal, it is necessary to visit the Algarve, considered the “End of the Earth” before Christopher Columbus braved the ocean blue, finding a whole new world in the process. (Once on the Iberian Peninsula, a pilgrimage to Palos, Spain, whence Columbus launched the Niña, Pinta, and the Santa Maria in the summer of 1492 for their fateful journey of discovery is also emerging as a popular New Grand Tour stop.)
Lisbon, Portugal.
Madrid, with its Prado Museum, and Barcelona, along with its famed Balearic Islands (Ibiza being a young man’s playground in the summer months) are just a few of the highlights of Spain.
From Spain, a trip to Africa’s Morocco is a must. And once on the great continent, Egypt, in all its timeless grandeur and splendor, beckons. To see the great pyramids is to see the God in man.
Ghana and Senegal are next on the African itinerary, then, if the stars align such that a gentleman will be received at the 700-year-old royal court of the Bamoun Kingdom within the Republic of Cameroon, then a gentleman would have been exposed to one of the great hidden treasures of West Africa.
The Great Pyramids of Giza, Egypt, on the continent of Africa.
There are direct flights from Cameroon to Paris, regarded by many as the world’s most beautiful city. And after enjoying Paris, with its great Louvre Museum, countless sidewalk cafés, and fashionable boutiques, a trip across the English Channel to England is compulsory. Queen Elizabeth II is no more. But the indelible impression she left upon the concept of monarchy remains, drawing millions of tourists to London each year to witness the trappings of British royalty. Then, of course, there are all the other attractions of the British Isles.
Flights from London to all the major capitals and cities of Europe are readily available. But it would behoove many a young man to fly to liberal Amsterdam after experiencing the formality of England. As it is said, “What happens in Amsterdam stays in Amsterdam….”
Berlin, Brussels, Vienna, and Geneva are on practically every New Grand Tour hit-list. And stately Copenhagen and enchanting Stockholm are worth the trip into the northern environs. Prague, which escaped bombardment during World War II, retains all its centuries-old charm. But as was the case with the Grand Tour of the 17th – 19th centuries, Italy remains the place. There is Venice and Milan and Florence and Siena and Pisa and Rome and Naples and Sicily and…. All things considered, square mile for square mile, there is no place on Earth like great Italy.
The incomparable Venice, Italy.
Mainland Greece, along with its many enticing islands, is also on every gentleman’s itinerary. And when time and budget allow, St. Petersburg, Russia, especially in the dead of winter, is a place of unforgettable beauty.
Young men on the New Grand Tour visit Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates. And then there is the East….
India’s magnificent Taj Mahal.
Alexander the Great was seduced by Persia but mesmerized by India, which requires at least one month to gain even a superficial appreciation of its splendors. And after India, a trip back to Africa for a Kenya safari and then a week of unwinding and relaxation on Zanzibar or the Seychelles can rejuvenate the soul. Thereafter, it’s back to Asia, this time to Japan and then to China before heading off to Australia.
Great Wall of China.
Some young men use the trans-Pacific flight as an opportunity to see the Hawaiian Islands before visiting great Mexico City, founded by the Aztecs. And once back on the continent of North America, young men y visit San Francisco before flying to America’s heartland to experience Chicago, dubbed the “Windy City” for good reason.
The urban sophistication of Chicago is an excellent prelude for New York City, “The City That Doesn’t Sleep.” Washington, DC, the “Capital of the Free World,” is required. And a visit to charming Charleston, South Carolina, with its genteel ways, is the perfect way to conclude the New Grand Tour before flying into Miami to return whence one came—after enjoying a delicious Cuban meal in one of “Little Havana’s” many restaurants.
Freedom Tower, Miami.
On September 14, 2025, Wayne James will announce the first recipient of the to-be-annual Wayne James World Explorer Grant®, an award of $50,000 given to a graduating senior from a bona-fide American college or university for the purpose of world travel for one year.
Former USVI Senator and Fashion Designer Wayne James, Blind, Files $15 Million Dollar Negligence Suit Against Federal Bureau of Prisons
Former USVI Senator and Fashion Designer Wayne James in a 2020 photo, just days after his release from FPC, Pensacola, FL
St. Croix-born fashion designer and former senator Wayne A.G. James is suing the Federal Bureau of Prisons for $15 million dollars, according to a Complaint filed in District Court of the Northern District of Florida (Pensacola) on Friday, September 16, 2022. The case is being brought under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), 28 U.S.C. § 2674. Captioned “Wayne A.G. James v. United States Government,” the civil action (Case #: 3:22-cv-18025-TKW-HTC) alleges that the medical staff at Federal Prison Camp, Pensacola, FL (FPC, Pensacola, FL) was “deliberately indifferent” to James’ pre-existing glaucoma condition during his March 2019 – June 2020 period of incarceration at FPC, Pensacola, resulting in his “irreversible,” “irreparable” loss of vision. (The August 2018 trial that led to James’ conviction and 30-month incarceration is presently under review by the District Court of the U.S. Virgin Islands for violations of James’ 5th and 6th Amendment Rights, and the Court has preliminarily determined that James’ Petition to Vacate Conviction “is not frivolous” and therefore worthy of judicial review.)
“I went into prison not even needing drug store readers,” James said. “But by the time I was released on June 1, 2020, my vision had so deteriorated that I had been relieved of my bathroom-cleaning work detail and transferred to special housing for infirm inmates,” James added.
According to the Complaint, James notified the medical staff at FPC Pensacola of his pre-existing glaucoma condition, but he was repeatedly denied care until he eventually broke ranks and wrote directly to the prison’s warden seeking intervention.
The Complaint further alleges that James’ prison-prescribed glaucoma medications were never monitored to determine their efficacy, and he was never given the glaucoma surgeries that were urgently recommended by the optometrist and ophthalmologist he saw while on his two warden-authorized furloughs.
The Complaint also alleges that James has no underlying health conditions that could have contributed or caused his blindness; and that since his release in 2020, he has been in the care of his private ophthalmologists and optometrists, who have prescribed pharmaceutically available medication that has effectively arrested any additional loss of vision and could have prevented his blindness during his period of incarceration.
“I am a fashion designer, a filmmaker, a Georgetown University law school graduate, a critically acclaimed author, a collector of art and antiques, a scholar of Danish West Indies and Virgin Islands history and culture, a genealogy researcher, a creator of luxury products, etc.,” James said. “All of these vocations and avocations require the use of my eyes. Being blind has immeasurably altered my quality of life and my ability to contribute to humanity,” James said.
James is being represented by Georgia attorney Lloyd J. Matthews, and the matter is assigned to Federal Judge T. Kent Wetherell II, and referred to Magistrate Judge Hope T. Cannon. A jury trial is demanded.
Eulogy of Evelyn Messer James (March 29, 1931 – June 16, 2022)
Evelyn Messer James at age 80.
Prepared by: Wayne A.G. James
Preface:
In my decades-long journey of family research, I have become acutely aware of the significance of each branch and each leaf on a family tree. And it was with that keen insight that I embarked upon the delightful task of creating a written record of the “leaf” that is Evelyn Messer James.
For many years, on account of a life lived abroad that rarely brought me home to St. Croix for extend-enough periods to sit with my mother and write her history, I harbored a premature sense of regret that I would one day lose the opportunity. But God and our ancestors had other plans….
The opportunity to sit with my dear mother, hour after hour, day after day—exactly the time needed to record a life as long and rich as Mommy’s—came in a most uncharacteristic, unpredictable, unprecedented way: I was ordered by the District Court of the Virgin Islands of the United States to 24/7 home confinement as a result of my being declared a “flight risk” during the legal proceedings pertaining to “financial inconsistencies” that occurred during my term as senator.
On September 4, 2017, while confined to the home of my sister Grete (“Patsy”), Mommy and my brother Kevin came to pay us a visit. And while visiting, word of the fast-approaching Hurricane Irma came across the airwaves. Kevin left Patsy’s house in order to secure La Grange House. But Mommy stayed behind with me and Patsy. And it is that fateful decision that enabled the long-overdue “Conversations with Evelyn Messer James,” a 35-page, single-spaced document detailing Mommy’s extraordinary life—from her birth atop a Crucian four-poster mahogany bedstead at “Schoolhouse” in Annaly, to her Saks Fifth Avenue wedding gown, to her intrepid sojourn to the nation’s capital to obtain her first university degree then to New York to earn her second, to her insightful foray into forestry.
With her characteristic tenacity, Mommy would each morning make her way to the room I was occupying, lie upon the bed, and begin recounting her life. “My memory isn’t like it once was,” she would say whenever she was not 100% sure of her recall, “but this is how it happened….”
Thus, after approximately two weeks of hours-long sessions each day, Mommy simply stated, “You have everything now. I want the generations to come to know me. Maybe you can one day write a book about my life. Or maybe an official document—just something so that they will know me after I am long gone.”
It is those conversations, along with my God-given gift of recall, that serve as the basis for this eulogy of Evelyn Marie Messer James.
The Eulogy:
Evelyn Messer James at age 19.
Many a boy—perhaps until he starts looking at movies and at magazines—believes that his mother is the most beautiful woman in the world. Then, typically in his teenage years, he starts to think otherwise. I, however, never stopped believing that my mother, Evelyn Marie Messer James, was the world’s most beautiful woman.
I recall one night in the summer of 1970, while marveling at my mother’s beauty, I asked, “Mommy, who is the world’s most beautiful lady?” And Mommy replied, “There is no such thing. There are many forms of beauty, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But it is often said that Elizabeth Taylor is the world’s most beautiful woman.”
As Life would have it, that very night, within minutes of our conversation, the movie, “Who’s Afraid ofVirginia Woolf?” starring Elizabeth Taylor, came on the television. Wanting to see with my own two eyes who was the woman who could upstage my mother, I looked at the movie. And as the great actress made her appearance, I exclaimed, “But Mommy, you are prettier than Elizabeth Taylor!” But in Mommy’s unassuming way, she modestly replied, “Wait ‘til you see her in Cleopatra.”
Later in life, I would have to concede that the great Naomi Campbell came a close second. But Mommy had better cheekbones.
Evelyn Messer James was Crucian to the bone. She is a leaf on a mighty baobab that came across the Atlantic in the hold of a slaving vessel as a mere seed. That seed took root on St. Croix in the early decades of the 1700s, and it has thrived ever since.
The Lineages:
Mommy is one of but a handful of remaining Crucian who can claim—with documentation—that they descend on both sides from people, all of whom were born on St. Croix once transplanted from Africa. Her maternal great-great-great-grandmother is Hope, born in 1776 at Estate Biddlestone (today called Estate Punch), which was at the time the “sister plantation” to Annaly. Hope is the mother of Grace Andrew, born at Annaly in 1806; Grace is the mother of Lucia Stevens, born in Annaly in 1840; Lucia is the mother of Julia Samuel, born in Annaly in 1864; Julia is the mother of Catherine Batiste, born in Annaly in 1892; and Catherine is the mother of Evelyn, born in Annaly in 1931. On her father’s side, she descends from a long line of Princes. Anthony Prince, born free on St. Croix in 1759 (the year of the first St. Croix slave insurrection), owned property on Hospital Street in the “Free Gut” section of Frederiksted, made his living as a cooper, and lived until the age of 96, dying in 1856. He, it is said in the family’s oral history, was the son of an African prince who was enslaved and brought to St. Croix in the earliest years of the Danish era (1733 -1917), hence the surname Prince. Anthony Prince (1759 -1856) is the father of Anthony Prince, born in 1777 at Estate Campo Rico. Like his father, his profession was that of cooper. His son, Richard “Dick Richard” Prince, was born on St. Croix in 1810, his mother being Sablona Williams. And like his forefathers, he, too, was a cooper. In 1865, “Dick Richard” Prince fathered Andrina Prince, born at Estate Two Friends. And Andrina is the mother of Carl Augustus Messer, the father of Evelyn Messer James, born at “Schoolhouse” at Annaly in 1931.
Idyllic Annaly:
For Mommy, Annaly, with its gentle hills, verdant pastures, and magnificent bay, was Arcadia, her Utopia, a Crucian Camelot. And throughout her life, whenever she spoke of Annaly, it was clear that in her mind, it was sacred ground. After all, several branches of her family come from Annaly.
Born to Carl Augustus Messer (1890 – 1971) and Catherine Batiste Messer (1892 -1967), Mommy was the 10th of 12 children—six boys, six girls—10 of whom lived into adulthood. From St. Croix’s storied “Northside” in general, and Annaly in particular, she derived her sense of being and of belonging. And for the duration of her Earthly existence, Annaly’s soil and air served to rejuvenate her. She always longed for Annaly; many a “navel string” of her family is buried there. And the Annaly plantation cemetery is filled with the remains of her ancestors. To Mommy, Annaly is hallowed ground.
The Childhood Years:
To hear Mommy speak of her childhood days in Annaly is to hear her speak of a paradise on Earth. Along with her siblings, namely Alvin (1911), honorifically called “Dada” by his siblings; Eileen (1913), addressed by her brothers and sisters as “Sister”; Lionel (1915) (“Leo”); Charles (1918) (“Charlie”); Gerald (1921); Leona (1925); Ann-Eliza (1927); Christian (1933); and Clarissa (1936); Merle Henry, who lived with the family as a sister for several years of her childhood; and the Messers’ dear, dear cousins, the offspring of Ann Richards Heyliger, daughter of Evelina Williams Richards, Mommy lived a life of bucolic beauty. But as Heaven had its Lucifer, Annaly had its “Capitan.”
“Run, Catherine! Run! Capitan comin’ afta we!” exclaimed Mommy when she realized that Capitan, the ferocious bull owned by the Lawaetz family, was in hot pursuit. [The Messer children called their mother by her first name.]
Noticing that Merle, Christian, and Evelyn were taking longer than normal to return from their daily journey to the Spring Garden gut, Catherine set out on foot to find the children, who had managed to quietly bypass Capitan as he was grazing by the roadside, seemingly oblivious of them. But knowing the bull’s wicked nature and vicious temperament, the children, upon rounding the bend in the road, took off running, knowing that the bull would likely abandon his grazing to pursue them.
To the horror of the children, upon rounding the bend, they encountered Catherine and young Clarissa on the road—heading towards Capitan!
Catherine Batiste Messer was a 6’ 4”, strapping lady. And for her, “running” was, at best, a brisk walk. But on that day, she hurriedly gathered up the hemline of her ankle-length frock and hastened towards the safety of “Schoolhouse,” the children run-walking by her side to ensure their collective safety.
It seemed like only seconds after they made it into the safety of their home that Capitan entered the yard, nostrils flaring, eyes glaring. Searching frantically for a victim but finding none, he redirected his wrath towards the water drums alongside the house, tossing them about like playthings in his fit of fury.
“When my father came home later that evening and we told him the story, he immediately grabbed his machete and marched up to Mr. Lawaetz’s house, telling him that if Capitan ever set foot in his yard again, he would be a dead bull. Carl Messer, well-known on the Northside as a stick-fighter in the West African tradition, was a fearless man. And he raised us to fear no man—only God The Almighty,” Mommy said, her admiration for her father almost palpable.
And it is to Mommy’s fearless nature that I attribute her remarkable honesty: In my 60 years on this Earth, I have never—not even once—heard my mother tell a lie (or, as she would say, an “untruth,” since in our family, the word “lie” is a “bad word”). She never had to tell a lie because she was never afraid of telling the truth. She was fearless.
Years later, in 1996 when Merle returned to St. Croix to attend Aunt Eileen’s funeral, Mommy and Merle were one afternoon sitting at La Grange, reminiscing about their childhood days at Annaly. And Merle, to whom Mommy was fearless and invincible, was shocked to learn that Mommy was terrified during her childhood years of the setting sun, that lurid orb in the sky.
“Whenever I would look towards the west and see the big, red sun in the sky, it somehow seemed to me to be a demon,” Mommy divulged. “I never admitted to anyone that I was afraid of the setting sun. But did you ever notice that I would always hastily abandon whatever we were doing to go inside the house around sunset? I wasn’t afraid of the dark. But I was always afraid of the setting sun.”
Much of Mommy’s bravery came from her physical prowess. From the earliest years of her schooldays, she and her siblings, along with their Heyliger cousins, would walk the four miles from Annaly to Jolly Hill to catch the bus to St. Patrick’s School. And on the days that they missed the bus, they would have to cut across La Grange to get to school, all on foot. So, by the time Evelyn was a teenager, she was “bull-strong.” She was a tall, strong girl—the girl who could beat the best of the boys in a fist fight, so much so that the nun’s at St. Patrick’s dubbed her “Joe Lewis.”
Her dear brother Gerald, 10 years her senior, trained as a boxer while a member of the CCC Camp. And he taught Mommy all he knew. Despite the age disparity, Mommy and Uncle Gerald were inseparable all their lives together on this Earth. “Evie,” he used to tell her, “avoid a fight if you can. But if you know for a fact that it will end in a fight, hit first—and second. And hopefully, you won’t have to do anymore hitting after that.”
“Come, Evelyn! Hurry! Ohanio fightin’ Christian!’ shouted our cousin Gloria Harris, daughter of Irene Stewart Harris, as she hurriedly approached where Mommy was sitting, studying for her geography test.
“I was sitting on the wall outside St. Patrick’s Church, facing Arthur Abel’s house, when Gloria came running,” Mommy said. “ I grabbed up my book and ran along with Gloria to just outside St. Gerard’s Hall, where the fight was taking place.
“I, holding the big geography book vertically in both hands, brought it with all my force down the length of Ohanio’s face. That’s when he let loose of Christian and grabbed me, trying to lift me off my feet. But I knew that trick, so I braced one leg behind the other so that he could only, at best, get ahold of one leg, then I bent down and lifted him off his feet. And by the time I got through with him, he had two black eyes, a bloody lip, his shirt was in shreds, and I had bitten his St. Patrick’s school tie in two. Mother Alban parted the fight. And Mother Constantina administered the punishment: seven lashes each.
“I soon forgot the lashes, but the tongue-lashing remained with me for the rest of my life. Mother Constantina said, ‘Evelyn, you box like Joe Lewis and you grapple like a Roman gladiator. But you are a beautiful girl. And if you keep fighting, one day your beautiful skin will be indelibly marked.’
“That was my last fight. I never fought again. I took Mother Constantina’s advice to heart. But that day, I had to give Ohanio what he deserved. He was the bully of the school, beating up all the boys. He didn’t come to me in peace. So, I sent him away in pieces. He never returned to St. Patrick’s after that day. They sent him away to New York.”
In 1946, in celebration of William Henry Hastie’s appointment as the first black governor of the United States Virgin Islands, there was a parade in the town of Frederiksted:
“At the end of the school day on a Friday, Mother Ermine told me to report back to school the following day, on Saturday morning. In those days, you didn’t ask a nun ‘why?’ So, I did as instructed,” Mommy said. “When I arrived at school, the nuns ushered me into one of the classrooms, where they dressed me in a beautiful gown made of paper. And the next thing I know, I was on a float in the parade, representing St. Patrick’s School. A photo was taken of me in that paper gown on that float. And when C.R.T. Brow saw the photo, he exclaimed, ‘Now that’s a black beauty!’ The Northside Puerto Ricans used to call me ‘Linda’ when I was a girl.”
Pretty dresses were very much a part of the Messer household. The aptitude for sewing was, apparently, inherited from the paternal line: Carl Messer wielded a bodkin as a saddler and a sewing-needle as the sugar-sack maker at the Bethlehem Sugar Factory. But the art of dressmaking was introduced to the Messer girls when Aunt Leona apprenticed with a Ms. Latimer of the town of Frederiksted. Aunt Leona quickly mastered the trade and passed it on, as fast as she was learning it, to Aunt Ann-Eliza and Mommy, then, finally, to Aunt Clarissa when she came of age.
Mommy could sew anything—from an apron to an haute couture gown to liturgical vestments. And it is with her great skill that she made the wedding gowns for Erna’s 1968 wedding, 1974 double wedding of Patsy and Laurel, and Jennifer’s 1975 wedding. And when Charlene Brow, daughter of Miriam Williams Brow and C.R.T. Brow, was getting married, she came to Mommy and said, “Mrs. James, you made my First Communion and Confirmation dresses. And those dresses were absolutely beautiful. So, I would be honored if you would make my wedding gown.”
Mommy, who had long given up the needle of her younger years for the pen of her adult years, brushed off her Singer sewing machine and gladly made Charlene an exquisite wedding gown. That would be the last time Mommy sewed for anyone outside her immediate family.
But the legacy of fashion did not end with her generation. I, as is well known, became a fashion designer immediately after graduating from Georgetown Law, my garments having been sold in some of the world’s finest stores and my collections lauded by the fashion industry’s foremost critics. And like my mother before me, who made liturgical vestments for the priests at St. Patrick’s, in 1989, in celebration of Georgetown University’s bi-centennial, I was commissioned to design the vestments for the Jesuits, a commission which led to a commission to design vestments for Pope John Paul II in 1990.
The Wedding of Gustav Alexander James and Evelyn Marie Messer at Mother of Perpetual Help Chapel at Estate Montpellier on St. Croix.
The Engagement and the Wedding:
The engagement was simple: Gustav put a plain gold band, created by Crucian jeweler Monroe Clendinen, on Mommy’s ring-finger and said, “Consider yourself married.”
Then the wedding plans started in earnest: “Sister sent me the wedding gown, a bouquet of silk flowers, and silk shoes from Saks Fifth Avenue. She enlisted Leona to purchase the veil. Sister also purchased my silver dinner service.
“The wedding took place at Mother of Perpetual Help Chapel at Estate Montpellier, officiated by Father Mark Knoll, Gustav’s friend. Ivan [James, younger brother of Gustav] was the best man. The wedding band, stylized with Roman numerals, was crafted by Monroe Clendinen. Marie Desau, Louis Brown’s mother and great-grandmother to Judge Patricia Steele, baked the wedding cake. We had a simple reception at Schoolhouse.”
On their wedding day, Daddy, Gustav A. James, Sr. (1919 – 1983) established his young family at 32A Hospital Street in the “Free Gut” section of Frederiksted, a stone’s through from Mommy’s Prince-Messer ancestral home at 32C Hospital Street.
When Daddy and Mommy got married, it was a match in the making for more than 200 years, for major branches of their respective family trees bore fruit at Annaly. Mommy descends from Hope, born at Estate Biddlestone (later called Estate Punch) in 1776. And Daddy descends from Thomas, born at Estate Biddlestone in 1776. By 1786, the two children had been transferred to Estate Annaly, each thereafter establishing his/her respective line: Hope and Andrew of Annaly producing Grace Andrew (b. 1806), Mommy’s great-great-grandmother; and Thomas and Azontha (born in Africa in 1785 and brought to St. Croix at the age of 13 in 1798) producing Christianah Thomas of Annaly, Daddy’s great-great-grandmother. And, as is to be expected, with the two families co-existing on the same plantation for almost 200 years before Daddy and Mommy united the families as one, the families had long criss-crossed, intermarried, and interrelated. In essence, then, Mommy and Daddy knew each other from long before they were born, let alone married.
“When I was at St. Patrick’s, I used to see Gustav each morning, walking up the street in front of St. Gerard’s Hall, heading towards the new convent to turn on the water for James La Grange. I had no idea then that he would one day be my husband,” Mommy would often recount.
Gustav James and Evelyn Messer James with their children on the grand staircase of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Frederiksted, St. Croix in 1964
The Young Family:
Mommy bore her children quickly—12 in 19 years. Forever connected to Annaly, her first three children—Magnolia, Erna, and Winfield—were delivered at “Schoolhouse,” under the careful eyes of her mother Catherine, who had herself given birth to 12.
When Joan and Jo-Ann—Mommy’s two babies born between Gustav, Jr., (“Jim”) and Jennifer—were born premature, dying within days of their births, Granny, in all her wisdom, consoled her daughter thus: “Evelyn, every day, we get from the Earth. But sometimes we have to give back to the Earth.”
Eirno Ritter, close relative of Isaac Gateword James (1893 – 1978), father of Gustav James, Sr., made the coffins for the infants, and Daddy buried them in the Prince-Messer plot in the Frederiksted Cemetery. Mommy always referred to Joan and Jo-Ann as her “two angels.” And Mommy’s paternal uncle, “Brother ‘Fonsa,” always maintained that baby Joan was the prettiest baby he had ever seen.
“When I lost the two children, the doctor told me that I could no longer be as active during pregnancy as I had always been, running up and down steps like in my girlhood and with the previous pregnancies. So, when I became pregnant with Jennifer, I was more cautious, and the rest of you came without incident,” Mommy recalled with a tone of immense gratitude in her voice.
The couple raised the 10 surviving children, educating them all at St. Patrick’s, St. Mary’s, and St. Joseph’s Catholic schools, thereafter sending them off to various universities around the country, some Catholic.
Mommy’s Close Friends:
Mommy was not a lady inclined towards many friendships. But the few she had were dear friends. Sylvie Matthews Henry, wife of John Henry and mother of Cordell, Rudyard, Omar, Blondell, Hillary, etc., and Clacie Robinson, mother of Alfonso Brewster, Mommy’s first godchild, were her dear, dear friends of her early adulthood.
During Mommy’s university years in Washington, DC, she forged friendships with people from around the world: James Meaner from Sierra Leone, Joyce Wong Henry from Guyana, and Kasim from the Middle East. They supported each other, shared their native dishes with each other, and would sometimes meet for social gatherings at our apartment on Mt. Pleasant Street in NW Washington, DC.
In adulthood, Mommy’s dear friend was Marilyn Martin, originally of the Dominican Republic, who not only coiffed Mommy, but also served as her confidante. And when Mommy started traveling to New York on the buying-trips for Carl-Michael’s, she and Valerie Stephenson of Jamaica became dear friends.
Evelyn Messer James at age 40.
Introduction to Professional Life:
One of my earliest memories of Mommy is of her in the kitchen, making a huge pot of red peas soup. And as a special treat to me, she stuck two of the dumplings onto the outside of the pot, allowing them to toast to a biscuit-like consistency. I must have been less than two years old because by 1963, after years as a housewife and homemaker while Daddy owned and operated his dry good/varietys store that his father had established a generation earlier, Mommy embarked on her professional career, never looking back.
In order to ready herself for the professional world, Mommy enrolled in several business courses taught in the evenings by Miriam Brow, godmother of Mommy’s eldest son Winfield, at the Claude O. Markoe School. There, Mommy took typing (Daddy bought her a big, green typewriter so that she could practice at home), office skills, and bookkeeping. And when Mommy got her first professional job with the Department of Public Safety, her supervisors, who had been accustomed to having to conduct on-the-job training, were pleasantly surprised—and relieved.
“I would like to place some flowers on the grave of Miriam,” Mommy said during our September 2017 conversations. “She helped me a lot.”
“Miriam prepared me well—everything from how to type forms with carbon paper, to how to manage the books of a business. Mommy also credits Evadney Neazer Peterson as being one her mentors in the early years of her aspiration towards a professional career.
Once flexing her wings in the professional arena, Mommy then became one of the founding members of the Frederiksted Chapter of BPW (Business and Professional Women’s Club). Within its membership, she found camaraderie with like-minded women who helped blaze the trail for Virgin Islands women in government, business, politics, and higher education.
Evelyn Messer James as a young member of BPW.
But in many ways, Mommy’s introduction to business came at a much earlier age, when she would observe how her mother would wholesale “Schoolhouse” fresh produce to the produce retailers and marketplace vendors of Christiansted. And when, at the age of eight, Mommy went to live with her father’s younger sister, Eileen Messer (1906 – 1940), in whose honor Mommy’s eldest sister is named, Mommy became the “righthand girl” of “Big Aunt Eileen,” who had established what was in effect a “cook shop” outside her home in the La Grange village in order to provide lunch for the factory workers. Big Aunt Eileen would have Mommy run to town, during her lunch breaks from St. Patrick’s School, to purchase the necessary ingredients for the cook shop. And Mommy witnessed, first-hand, how to factor in costs in order to price products and services at a profit.
But it was when Mommy, from 1940-41, went to live in Christiansted with Councilman Andrew Pedro and his wife that Mommy whetted her appetite for business.
Mommy’s maternal great-grandmother was Lucia Stevens Pedro (1840 – 1878) of Annaly. So, when Andrew Pedro and his wife, who were childless, returned to St. Croix after some years of living in the States, he came to Annaly to ask Granny if she could let one of the children live with him and his wife at his home in Christiansted. My grandparents agreed. And at the age of 10, Mommy withdrew from St. Patrick’s and was enrolled in St. Mary’s, Arnold Mortimer Golden being one of her classmates.
“I had a wonderful time with the Pedros,” Mommy would say throughout the remainder of her life. “I was his little ‘Business Representative.’ He used to manage the properties of Crucians who were living in the States. So, I would collect the rents in cash, issue receipts for the collected cash, purchase corresponding postal money orders, and mail the money orders to the people in the States. I also used to accompany Mr. Pedro to the many political events he attended. And we would get into his car and drive to Cramer’s Park, which was being constructed in those years. I was like a little business executive. And I enjoyed having so many responsibilities. I felt grown.”
Mommy also spoke exceedingly affectionately about the two older girls who lived near the Pedro house, which was situated on the corner of Queen and King Cross Streets, the building that years later housed Brady’s Restaurant on the ground level.
“Those two girls, knowing that I was a Frederiksted girl, took me under their wings like two big sisters. They were very loving towards me. I will never forget their kindness,” Mommy said, her voice filled with nostalgia. “And every morning, religiously, a lady used to come to comb my hair for me. Mrs. Pedro used to pay the lady five cents each day. I had my own, private beautician at age 10! I don’t recall the lady’s name. She was very nice to me. I wish I had paid more attention to such things back then. Had I recalled her name, I would thank her today by laying a wreath on her grave. My days in Christiansted were wonderful days…. We should purchase the Pedro house and restore it to its former glory. It was a beautiful property. We should look into acquiring it. We have history in that house.”
Higher Education and Professional Life:
So, when Mommy transferred from the Department of Public Safety for a better position with the Department of Health, she started the job with a professionalism that got her immediately noticed by her supervisor, Theodore Thomas, and Health Commissioner Melvin H. Evans. And they encouraged and facilitated her interest in furthering her education, recommending that she apply for the prestigious Morris F. de Castro Scholarship, which she was awarded.
In 1968, Mommy and Daddy struck a deal: Mommy, mother of 10 children, would head off to the U.S. Mainland to further her education. Mommy would take the four youngest children—Jennifer, Kevin, Michael, and me with her to Washington, DC, where she would study at the Benjamin Franklin University (which later merged with George Washington University); and Daddy would remain on St. Croix with the three older children who had not yet left home to pursue their studies—Patsy, Laurel, and Gustav, Jr. Our first-cousin, Dennis Morris, Aunt Ann-Eliza’s son, also lived with Daddy during that time.
Of course, there was talk: that the plan would put a strain on the marriage; that Mommy should stay on St. Croix and look after all her children; that Mommy should just go to C.V.I. and make do with that.
But Daddy and Mommy knew what they were doing. And in the summer of 1971, Mommy, at age 40, obtained her first university degree. Then, at age 50 in 1981, she obtained her second degree, this one from Pace University in New York. Always seeking knowledge, Mommy later enrolled in the Master’s of Public Administration program at the University of the Virgin Islands. And in the early 2000s, when e-commerce was still in its infancy, Mommy established www.CarlMichaelGifts.com and enrolled in computer classes at UVI to learn how to build, update, and manage her website and her online venture.
“It was Brother ‘Fonsa who sparked my desire for education,” Mommy said. “When I was a schoolgirl, he would each year buy me a new bookbag and a straw hat. He was proud of my interest in learning. And he always encouraged me. We need to erect a tombstone on his gravesite. Brother ‘Fonsa was my uncle. But he was like a father to me.
“You can do everything you set your mind to,” Mommy would always say. “But you can’t do everything at once. I wanted a lot of children, and I wanted a lot of education. So, I got the children, then I went off to school. I have never regretted it. Gustav was a great support. Few men would have done what he did. If I didn’t have a husband and a houseful of children, I would have been a racecar driver. I never pursued that career, but I drove fast whenever I could. For my second car, I had to choose between a Mustang and a Pontiac Firebird. I chose the Firebird because it’s speedometer went up to 160.” Mommy was an extraordinary lady.
Mommy’s Entrepreneurial Years:
On November 11, 1983, Evelyn Messer James became a widow. She was 52 years old. Family friend, Dr. Gilbert Sprauve of the island of St. John promised the family that he would make himself available to accompany Mommy to public functions and to give fatherly counseling to me and my siblings. And for almost 40 years, Dr. Sprauve unwaveringly kept his promise. And when I became ensnared in my legal quagmire, Dr. Sprauve came to my assistance like a father.
In 1998, after 25 years of service to the Virgin Islands Government, Evelyn Messer James retired, her last position being that of Senior Health Planner for the Department of Health. But she didn’t just go off quietly into the sunset. Instead, she spread her wings even more: Dr. Sprauve accompanied her to Alaska, Central America,South America, and the Hawaiian Islands; she traveled to West Africa; Dr. Sprauve again accompanied her on a grand tour of Europe; and Mommy traveled to many of the Caribbean islands. (And, of course, during her early adult years, Mommy traveled extensively in Canada and to many of the States as a member of BPW).
In December of 2002, Evelyn Messer James traveled to Foumban, Cameroon, West Africa, to attend the royal wedding of her youngest daughter, Jennifer Claudia James, to His Royal Highness Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya (1937 – 2021), King of the Bamoun Nation of Camerron. King Njoya was the 19th monarch of the Bamoun kingdom, with its unbroken line of royal succession reaching back to the 1300s.
HRH Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya (1937-2021) and HRH Jennifer James Njoya in a royal photo, circa 2002.
In many ways, perhaps in tribute to Daddy, who supported the family with the proceeds from the dry goods/variety store which he owned and operated from 1941 -1968, Mommy established Carl-Michael’s, a dry goods/variety store in her beloved town of Frederiksted, selling everything from children’s clothing to fabrics and notions to school uniforms to costume jewelry and household items. And as a salute to her late husband, Mommy used in her store some of the original showcases from Daddy’s store.
Just as Mommy had been the “right hand girl” for her Big Aunt Eileen and for Councilman Andrew Pedro, her third-eldest grandchild, Oceana James, became her “right hand girl” upon the opening of Carl-Michael’s in 1985.
Mommy delighted in the buying-trips to New York to select goods and fabrics for the store. She even revived decades-old business relationships with the Puerto Rico-based wholesaler, such as Alonzo Sobrino, with whom Daddy, and Grandfather James before him, had done business.
Community Service:
“For years, Mommy kept up correspondence with a nun in Haiti whom she first met years ago on St. Croix while the nun was on mission here,” Oceana said. “For years, Mommy would send money and products to help the school in Haiti where the nun worked. For a little while, around the time of the earthquake, they were not in communication. But they got back in touch with each other, and Mommy kept supporting the school.”
Mommy was always keenly aware of her need to give to her community. In the early 1950s, she lent her theatrical talents to the St. Patrick’s Church community theater productions, directed by Father Frank, one of the most notable being her capacity-crowd performances at St. Gerard’s Hall in Nuts and Bolts. Mommy was also a member of the Catholic Families Movement (CFM), spearheaded by Sister Mary Marthe Vanrompey, the organization’s mission being to encourage the self-sufficiency of Catholic families. Mommy contributed to the organization’s effort by teaching classes on sewing.
Mommy also participated in the political process, serving for many years as an elected member of the Board of Elections, and running for the Virgin Islands Legislature in 2000 and Delegate for the Fifth Constitutional Convention.
In the 1990s, Evelyn Messer James donated her expertise in grant-writing/-management by serving as Executive Director of Our Town Frederiksted, overseeing its “Scrape-and-Paint” program, the goal of which was to beautify and maintain the many historic structures of her beloved town.
Of all Mommy’s charitable causes, however, the one nearest and dearest to her heart was the initiative she and Daddy established in 1981: The Committee to Restore the Mother of Perpetual Help Chapel at Estate Montpellier. Together with the island’s “Northside” families and friends from the Catholic Eastern Caribbean islands, Mommy and Daddy began raising funds to restore the country chapel in which they were married. In the end, it was decided for security reasons that it would be best to reconfigure the chapel as an open-air place of worship.
But just as Mommy’s foundation in business came from her childhood experiences with Big Aunt Eileen and Councilman Andrew Pedro, her inclination for charitable endeavors took root when she was in her pre-teen years and would visit her paternal grandmother, Andrina Prince Messer (1865 -1941), assisting her in the final decade of her life.
To visit her grandmother Andrina and uncle Alfonso “Brother ‘Fonsa” Messer (1896-1973) at the family’s 32C Hospital Street home in “Free Gut” (the section of the town designated in the era of Danish slavery on St. Croix [1733 -1848] for the town’s free black population) was the historic equivalent of a “religious experience”: Mommy’s great-great-great-grandfather Anthony Prince (1759-1856) established the one-level stone structure, with its 3 ft.-thick walls, as the family’s residence. It is at that home, with its brick oven in the yard, that Andrina baked her town-famous black bread and taught the profession of baking to several of the town’s young people.
At Hospital Street, Mommy also learned about her Messer line–that it can be traced back on St. Croix all the way to 1758, when Johanne Messer was born to a German father and a black lady. Born free, Johanne went on to become Captain of the Frederiksted Town Watch. He died in 1843 and is buried in the St. Paul’s Anglican Cemetery in Frederiksted. Research on the Messer line continues, with efforts underway to uncover the names of the parents of Johanne.
At her grandmother’s house, Mommy heard about her two paternal uncles, Alexander, born in 1888, and Richard, born in 1893, who migrated to Cuba in the second decade of the 1900s to work in that great island’s sugarcane industry and to play music. And it was at that house that Mommy would sit and listen to “Brother ‘Fonsa” play his guitar in his unique, pluck-strum way, a method he passed on to his young cousin Jamesie Brewster. Mommy used to beg Brother ‘Fonsa to teach her how to play the guitar, but he always refused, telling her that the guitar strings would toughen the tips of her fingers in a manner unbecoming a lady. At that same house, Mommy would help her grandmother comb her hair, get dressed in her stocking, help her place her shawl onto her shoulders, then, together, they would stroll along the streets of “Free Gut,” saying “Howdy” to relatives and friends alike. Mommy learned “the old ways” from “the old people”: Need to move bruised blood? Drink bitter, unsweetened white root tea. Have a high fever? Place fresh soursop leaves under the sheet. Want to whiten your teeth? Brush them with coal pot ashes. She also learned the old wisdoms: “What ain’t meet yoh ain’t pass yoh”; “Don’t envy people for what they have because you don’t know how they come by it”; “Leave them to the foot of the cross.” Also at that house Mommy honed the cooking and baking skills she had already learned from her mother Catherine, thereby mastering kallaloo, maufe, souse, red pease soup,boiled fish and fungi, Crucian Vienna cake, and potato stuffing, for example.
And, of course, at that ancestral dwelling place, Mommy also learned of her ancestors: Isabella, born at Estate Two Friends in 1772, is the mother of Nelly Barry, born at Estate Two Friends in 1809; and Nelly is the mother of Ann-Eliza James, born at Estate Two Friends in 1833, and she then gives birth to Andrina Prince (Messer) in 1865 at Estate Two Friends.
Mommy’s mother, Catherine Batiste Messer, was the daughter of Francis Batiste, born at Annaly in 1862 and died when crushed in a cart accident at the age of 30 in 1892, a few months before Catherine was born. Francis’ mother, Maria James, born at Annaly in 1829, married Francis’ father, Ferdinand Batiste, a mason from Estate Punch, in 1863 at St. Patrick’s Church. And Maria James Batiste is the granddaughter of Angelic (James) of Annaly, born, according to Annaly, in 1749, and gave birth to 17 children, 16 of whom she outlived. When she died on July 26, 1849, one year after Emancipation, Annaly recorded her age at death at 100, but St. Patrick’s recorded her death age at 120 years old.
And Catherine’s mother, Julia Samuel, born at Annaly in 1864, is the daughter of Charles A. Samuel, born at Estate Mt. Stewart in 1839, becoming the overseer of the plantation. His mother, Maria David Samuel, was born at Mt. Stewart in 1813.
So, from an early age, Mommy was well aware of her deep roots on St. Croix—that she was a leaf on a magnificent baobab that made its way across the mighty Atlantic as a seed, germinating and taking root on St. Croix in the earliest years of the Danish era and perhaps even in the era of the French (1650-1695/1733).
The Retirement Years:
When Mommy closed Carl-Michael’s after 12 successful years in business, she immediately took up yet another project, for Mommy had a penchant for projects—whether a correspondence course on becoming an author, or dabbling as a travel referral agent as a member of Travelone International, or writing down traditional recipes with the intention of starting a Crucian Cooking Channel. But the project that took root immediately—literally and figuratively—and gave Mommy the most satisfaction was her brilliant idea to establish a palm grove at La Grange.
“We have the acreage,” she said with her characteristic confidence. “And La Grange has an abundance of water—just what the Royal Palm thrives on.”
At the western entrance of La Grange House, not far from the old, elegant, limestone pillars that punctuate the driveway like two exclamation marks, once stood a tall, slender Royal Palm. Roystonea borinquena, a vestige of the Danish era. Like a lone sentinel looking over the James family, the palm is believed to have been planted in the 1890s.
Beginning in the early 2000s, Mommy started, painstakingly each day, collecting the seedlings from around the base of the great palm. She would gently collect them, then transfer them to starter-pots atop a large table shaded by one of great mahogany trees that surround the house. There, on that table, as if tending to her many babies in a nursery, Mommy nurtured each plant.
She then hired a gardener to establish a palm grove on the southern end of the property, not far from the La Grange gut. And today, 20 years later, the grove is thriving, with hundreds of palms reaching for the heavens.
“I established the grove knowing that it would mature after I am gone,” Mommy said mater-of-factly. “Every generation of a family should endeavor to surpass the one that preceded it. It’s called progress. The family will benefit from my palm grove for generations to come.”
The Final Years:
In Mommy’s last years of active life, her son Kevin became her “right hand man,” running her errands, chauffeuring her to and fro. He died unexpectedly on May 8, 2019, one month shy of his 60th birthday. From St. Thomas, Erna managed Mommy’s finances, her healthcare, and her household staff. Patsy was her hands-on caretaker, accompanying her to her medical appointments. And Laurel did all Mommy’s shopping for groceries and household needs. Mommy wanted for nothing.
During my time with Mommy while we were both at Patsy’s house from September 2017 to January 2018, Mommy would each day come to the room I was occupying and just lie on the bed. I would marvel at her beauty. Even at her age, she still had the best cheekbones of all time….
During those long days together, Mommy often spoke of her profound admiration for her eldest siblings: Dada, Sister, Leo, and Charlie. They had served as good examples for their younger siblings.
Mommy also reminisced about her favorite Annaly pets: Shingee, the wolflike dog that sucked water like a pig rather than lapping it like a dog; Bones, Shingee’s fungi dog companion; the black donkey that Uncle Christian named “Organdy”; Blue Bell, the roan Thoroughbred broodmare that Grandfather used to breed with the island’s top stallions to produce offspring for sale to Puerto Rico; and Dandy, the gentle gelding that would allow Mommy to braid its tail whenever she pleased.
Mommy vividly recalled the day Dandy returned home to “Schoolhouse,” pulling the cart, but without Grandfather in the driver’s seat. Granny and Aunt Leona immediately got into the cart, allowing Dandy to lead them to Grandfather, who had fallen off the cart into the Montpellier gut, lying there unconscious. “Dandy was a great horse,” Mommy said. “I loved Dandy.”
And oftentimes, when I was almost certain that she was fast asleep, I would observe her gracefully and silently make the sign of the cross on her person, then seamlessly resume her sleeplike state.
One day, when we were talking, she recounted the details of my birth. Then she looked me straight in my eyes and said, “Be you.”
Palm Grove established by Evelyn Messer James at Estate La Grange.
On September 17, 2017, in the fierce winds of Hurricane Maria, the age-old palm at the entrance of La Grange House fell. But it left behind a grove filled with hundreds of offspring, thanks to the vision of Evelyn Marie Messer James.
Mommy’s last full meal was a bowl of kallaloo prepared by Laurel. Shortly thereafter, her appetite declined—as if she wanted her last meal in her Earthly existence to be the age-old West African dish.
Evelyn Messer James at age 80.
Shortly thereafter, Mommy began her decline…. I asked that the priest be called to administer The Last Sacrament, and Jennifer went immediately to St. Patrick’s to request the priest. My dear godsister, Jeanie Duval, notified the priest of Jennifer’s request, and he and Jennifer set off immediately for La Grange. Once there, the priest administered the last rites. And within a handful of hours, Mommy, like a whisper in a grove of mighty palms, departed….
May Evelyn Marie Messer James rest in Eternal Peace.
Manly Manners 