A former suffragist and a longstanding marriage officer, West Bay grandmother Francine E. Jackson has been laying the foundation for Cayman’s women and families for many years.
The 96-year-old, credited as one of the early pioneers for female politicians and female voters here, was honoured on Monday as one of four new National Heroes in the Cayman Islands.
“ It was completely a surprise. I had no inkling that such a thing was in the [making]. Nobody questioned me; nobody asked me any questions. I had no idea,” Jackson said as she recalled finding out she had been selected for the honour.
Jackson, along with Captain Keith Parker Tibbetts, Ernest Craddock Ebanks and Frank Hugh George Scotland, was announced as the islands’ newest addition to the National Heroes list.
She is Cayman’s only living National Hero.
Small stature, big dreams
Though small in stature, Jackson was mighty in her resolve as a young wife and mother in the ’50s and was determined to ensure women in the community could have a say in the political process.
An initial petition for women’s voting rights, which was signed and presented in 1948 by a group of women in George Town of which Jackson was a part, was dismissed by lawmakers.
However, that did not stop the movement nor Jackson.
She was firm in her resolve that change had to come. In 1957, she and three Bodden Town women filed another petition for women to vote and stand for office.
This time it was successful.
“ There were two attempts to [get voting rights], and I think most of the men were really happy [after] because in those days women had a role to play,” she said, adding that back then women were the “island-makers”, building homes and raising families while the men went to sea.
She said she believed the foundation the women laid making Cayman strong helped their cause.
“We earned it,” she said, adding she did not recall any real resistance at the time.
“Maybe some people might have grumbled and said, ‘Where they going now? They think they’re big shots now or something?’ But for the most part, I don’t think there was any resistance. I wasn’t aware of anyway,” Jackson said.
When she voted for the first time in the 1959 election, Jackson, then a 31-year-old mom of three, was spurred by political meetings held on the front porch of fellow National Hero Mary Evelyn Wood, her late husband Vernon Jackson’s aunt.
Jackson, along with women dubbed the Fabulous Four, then sought office after their successful bid for suffrage.
Looking back, Jackson said she did not think the bid was a “big thing” because they were defeated by their male counterparts. Her efforts, however, would help inspire other women to run for office.
‘Get involved’
Jackson, together with her husband, has also officiated nearly 8,000 weddings in the Cayman Islands, some for local couples and others for visitors seeking a dream Caribbean wedding.
She said being able to help form the foundation for families through marriage was a rewarding effort and one she loved.
A strong woman of faith and church mother at John Gray Memorial Church, Jackson continues to counsel couples, though she stopped conducting weddings some three months ago.
Looking back, Jackson said she still questions what she did to deserve such a high honour as a National Hero, saying she believes there were others in the community more deserving.
However, for the many families she fed hot meals to in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan in 2004, the couples she blessed as an officiant and the women whose paths she help trailblaze in politics, the honour she received is truly well deserved.
Though she said could not see it then, Jackson said she now sees the impact her time in politics made, encouraging women to get involved in national matters and seek election.
“It gives me a sense of pride,” she said.
With an election on the horizon, Jackson’s message for Cayman’s women, young and old, is to “get involved”.
“One of the best ways of showing you have an interest in your island and what’s happening is to involve yourself and not stay at home and say, ‘Oh, well let them do what they feel like,” she said.
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