National hero Francine Jackson will lie in state in Parliament on Wednesday, ahead of her official funeral at the Wesleyan Holiness Church, West Bay, on Friday, 17 July.
The occasion is being held to honour Jackson, who was 97, and to allow the public to pay their respects to the leading campaigner for women’s rights and marriage celebrant, who had been Cayman’s only living recipient of national hero status.
In a statement issued on Monday, the government said, “The lying-in-state forms part of the wider programme of official events being held in honour of Mrs. Jackson’s life and contribution to the Cayman Islands.”
Members of the public will be able to pay their respects at Parliament between 10am and 12.30pm Wednesday, after the formal reception of the casket by Ezzard Miller, speaker of the house, Premier André Ebanks, Cabinet members and MPs.
Jackson passed away suddenly on 5 July.
Her official funeral will be held at 4pm Friday.
The Cayman Islands flag will be flown at half-mast on all government buildings, entities and schools during normal business hours, from 9am Wednesday until the end of the day of the official funeral, the government said.
Campaigner for women’s rights
Jackson helped lead a campaign in 1948 to gain votes for women and the right for them to stand for office. A petition was presented to lawmakers but dismissed.
Jackson, however, was undeterred and she and three Bodden Town women in 1957 submitted a similar petition and that time it was successful.
She voted for the first time two years later and with a group of women dubbed “the Fabulous Four” later stood for office, although they were all defeated at the polls.
Jackson also blazed a trail in marriage and became Cayman’s first Civil Registrar of Marriages. She opened Cayman Weddings in West Bay in the mid-1990s.
She and husband Vernon, who died a decade ago, performed nearly 8,000 wedding ceremonies between them.
The lying in state and funeral will be livestreamed on the CIG YouTube channel and CIGTV cable channels.
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