Former MLA and popular chef John Jefferson Sr. passed away on Saturday, 12 Dec. He was 93.
An official funeral is planned for Jefferson, who served as an MLA for eight years. His body will lie in state at the Parliament building on Friday, 18 Dec., from 9am until 11am. His funeral will be held at the Wesleyan Holiness Church in West Bay at 2pm on Saturday, 19 Dec.
Flags were being flown at half mast at government buildings throughout Cayman on Monday in honour of the late politician.
Speaker of the House McKeeva Bush paid tribute in Parliament Monday to the man known widely as ‘Chef John’ or ‘Brother John’, as he announced the arrangements for his lying in state and official funeral.
He said Jefferson, who served two consecutive terms as MLA for the district of West Bay, was first elected in 1968, defeating the late Spurgeon Ebanks.
“He was an effective MLA, a man on the ground, attending the needs of his people in his district of West Bay,” Bush said of Jefferson. “Brother John stood strongly at all times for all things Caymanian, not budging on any matter he felt would cause moral decadence of the society and our values. Most certainly, there was no stronger defender of his Christian faith than him.
“The church was, he felt and declared, the cornerstone of our Christian faith and it should never be denigrated at any time.”
Bush said Jefferson’s political life had come to an end because of his support of the Cayman Islands cadastral survey of the 1970s, which formalised the registration of local land, and his backing of the then government’s infrastructure projects, including a new road network, the public hospital, the courthouse, the ‘Glasshouse’ government administration building and the current parliament building.
“Without the championing of the cadastral system and those infrastructure projects, where would we have been?” Bush asked, before inviting members to stand for a minute of silence in memory of Jefferson.
A deeply religious man, Jefferson told the Cayman Compass in an interview in December last year of his strong faith, saying he had become a Christian at age 8. He went on to become a pastor at Wesleyan Holiness Church.
He also reminisced fondly about life in Cayman in earlier days, saying, “We didn’t have anything else but each other and there was unity among our people, even though there were no great things like we have today, but we were a happy people.”
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