‘Lady B’, as she was more affectionately known, had been ailing in recent years and was confined to bed. However, the Sunday Observer learnt that her passing took her caregivers by surprise as her condition worsened suddenly on Saturday at about 10:00 am.
She was taken to the hospital and died at approximately 4:40 pm.
On Saturday night, Prime Minister Bruce Golding said her passing has taken from us the most enduring icon of Jamaica’s political struggles.
Pointing to her marriage to Sir Alexander, founder of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU), Golding said Lady Bustamante “was a heroine in her own right, having been in the front line of the fight to secure and defend the rights of the worker in the 1930s”.
Added Golding: “Jamaicans reserved a special place in their hearts for ‘Lady B’ and she enjoyed the love and adoration of Jamaicans from all walks of life and all political persuasions.
“We are deeply saddened by her passing, but we are an immensely richer country and people for the life she lived and the completeness with which that life was dedicated to the people of Jamaica.”
Labour Minister Pearnel Charles, who is also a long-serving official of the BITU, said Lady B was “the last of the personalities that accompanied the revolution that Sir Alexander led on behalf of the working class in Jamaica”.
Praising her for the work she did with Sir Alexander, who was also the founder of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), Charles said “certainly, a legend has passed”.
