'even the newest stars are honored'
Cherry Smith
REAL NAME: Ermine Ortense Bramwell
STAGE NAMES: Cherry Green,Cherry Smith
BIRTH PLACE/YEAR: 1943, Jamaica
CLAIM TO FAME: The Wailers Band Background Vocalist 1963- 1966
Cherry was one of the original members of Bob Marley and the Wailers who helped them create their signature sound. She recorded seven songs with the group for producer Clement 'Coxsone' Dodd's Studio One label including Lonesome Feeling, one of their big hit songs.
But really, she was known as Cherry Green sometimes Cherry Smith. "Everyone knew her as Cherry because she was red," recalled "Sir Henry" Eccleston, a disc jockey at WBAI in New York City, who grew up with Cherry in Trench Town, Jamaica. It was a name by which even her mother called her. As a girl, Cherry was singing, and so were many of her friends. By the time she was a teenager, she was hanging with Marley and future band members Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh and Junior Braithwaite, as well as another backup singer, Beverly Kelso. She was also known as Cherry Green after all, her brother's last name was Green, so they figured hers was, too. Later anthologies sometimes called her Cherry Smith or excluded her altogether.
Cherry left the band early and didn't care to set the record straight, said her husband of recent years, Thomas Barker. "In the beginning, they were just teenagers trying to earn enough money to buy some cocoa," said author Farley.
By 1967, Cherry had a baby girl, and playing for a little change or a new dress, as she once recalled, wasn't enough, she told The Beat. She left the group. Farley estimates she made 10 or 11 recordings, including originals of Simmer Down, Maga Dog (She's the One Barking), I Need Your Love and Lonesome Feeling. The originals are becoming easier to find as bootlegged albums make their way into the mainstream, Farley said.
Cherry left Jamaica in 1969 and hit Miami, New York and Southern California. She was a mom and nurse before retiring to West Palm Beach, Barker said. Cherry caught Marley only once in concert after she left: in 1976 at the Santa Monica Civic Center. There, despite an invitation to go backstage, someone turned her away, she told a reporter. Marley found out later, she recalled. "When Bob look at me, he said, 'Look at sister Cherry!' ... He was surprised, and he come and he hug me." Besides her husband, Ms. Dempsey-Barker is survived by a daughter, Audrey Hinton; a brother, Carlton Green; and a
WATCH/LISTEN
"LONESOME FEELING"
STAGE NAMES: Cherry Green,Cherry Smith
BIRTH PLACE/YEAR: 1943, Jamaica
CLAIM TO FAME: The Wailers Band Background Vocalist 1963- 1966
Cherry was one of the original members of Bob Marley and the Wailers who helped them create their signature sound. She recorded seven songs with the group for producer Clement 'Coxsone' Dodd's Studio One label including Lonesome Feeling, one of their big hit songs.
But really, she was known as Cherry Green sometimes Cherry Smith. "Everyone knew her as Cherry because she was red," recalled "Sir Henry" Eccleston, a disc jockey at WBAI in New York City, who grew up with Cherry in Trench Town, Jamaica. It was a name by which even her mother called her. As a girl, Cherry was singing, and so were many of her friends. By the time she was a teenager, she was hanging with Marley and future band members Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh and Junior Braithwaite, as well as another backup singer, Beverly Kelso. She was also known as Cherry Green after all, her brother's last name was Green, so they figured hers was, too. Later anthologies sometimes called her Cherry Smith or excluded her altogether.
Cherry left the band early and didn't care to set the record straight, said her husband of recent years, Thomas Barker. "In the beginning, they were just teenagers trying to earn enough money to buy some cocoa," said author Farley.
By 1967, Cherry had a baby girl, and playing for a little change or a new dress, as she once recalled, wasn't enough, she told The Beat. She left the group. Farley estimates she made 10 or 11 recordings, including originals of Simmer Down, Maga Dog (She's the One Barking), I Need Your Love and Lonesome Feeling. The originals are becoming easier to find as bootlegged albums make their way into the mainstream, Farley said.
Cherry left Jamaica in 1969 and hit Miami, New York and Southern California. She was a mom and nurse before retiring to West Palm Beach, Barker said. Cherry caught Marley only once in concert after she left: in 1976 at the Santa Monica Civic Center. There, despite an invitation to go backstage, someone turned her away, she told a reporter. Marley found out later, she recalled. "When Bob look at me, he said, 'Look at sister Cherry!' ... He was surprised, and he come and he hug me." Besides her husband, Ms. Dempsey-Barker is survived by a daughter, Audrey Hinton; a brother, Carlton Green; and a
WATCH/LISTEN
"LONESOME FEELING"
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RWW FASHION FEATURE - 'BRIDGET SANDALS'
Novia McDonald-Whyte - Contributing editor Jamaica Observer
Sunday, December 07, 2003
Sandals designer Bridget say "Bridget sandals" in Jamaica and fashion watchers, as well as lovers of sexy leather straps, will smile the smug smile of those in the know. It has been, for Bridget Brown, (known by thousands as Bridget), a journey of twenty-odd years. The fact is, the leather soles of her sandals almost left her barefooted on several occasions. "It took me three years," Bridget tells SunDay to get my feet off the ground. I paid the price for not going to school. I had to endure artisans not cutting the leather properly, bad work attitude, sabotage, you name it, I went through it."
A baptism of fire, some might be tempted to add for the former Playboy Bunny. "I was a bunny between 1972 and 1977 at the Playboy Boscobel Beach," says Bridget, flashing her signature toothy smile, and still conscious of that bunny poise.
"Playboy was forced to close (no tourists were coming to Jamaica). I was forced to come back to Kingston. I had to find some means of survival. My first stop was G's One of a Kind -- an upscale boutique that sold one-of-a kind Italian shoes and clothing. I left that in May 1981, after Bob Marley's death. I sold pound-cloth for Carmen Brown of Karmen's Corner. "There I was with my scale underneath my arm, and my cushions at my side. I really never wanted to make sandals. I also made skull caps and crochet bags."
Start she did and never looked back. Bridget even found the time and finances to attend school in Milan. "I went to school out of curiosity. I wondered if I was doing something wrong. Little did I know that I was in fact doing something right. My customers are happy, the sandals are fitting right, and I, too, am satisfied. I admire what I am doing."
No idle boast. Bridget Sandals were on the runway at New York Fashionweek, and Caribbean Fashionweek. Bridget Sandals are in Barbados, St Kitts, Antigua, Lincoln Avenue, South Beach (Miami), in the Village (New York) and at Controversy -- Battersea London.
Come next season, there's the possibility of a shipment to Japan, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, and Dallas.
"You have to be skilfull to survive. It has been a 20-year fight for survival. It's a struggle to maintain quality, confidence, style, craftsmanship. Finally, you have to have integrity in business."
As the chat comes to an end and Bridget does that Bridget walk towards her taxi, and there's a feeling that the very best is still to come from this beautiful sister.
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