Kayla Lockhart-Edwards was the complete package.

She was beautiful.  She was smart.  She was hugely talented.  She was decent and honourable.  She was compassionate and caring.  She was a God-fearing woman and a true patriot of The Bahamas.

In the time that she spent here on earth she made every day count.   She led a life of accomplishment and exemplary service.  Hers was a life well led and because of that our nation is all the richer for it.  That is why I come here today not to mourn Kayla’s passing but to celebrate her life.

And what a magnificent life it was!  Who would have thought that the little girl from Ragged Island would grow into one of the truly great cultural giants of our time?

Kayla loved her country and all its people.  She was proud of its heritage and cultural traditions.  She believed in her country and celebrated it in drama, in poetry and in song.  And she didn’t do it alone either.  She brought thousands along with her, whether as actors or dancers, as choir members or musicians, or as one of the many who can trace their own appreciation of the arts to the enthusiastic example of Kayla Lockhart-Edwards.

The culture of a people is the soul of a people.

During her life, Kayla tapped into that soul and laid it bare for all the world to see. That is why Kayla’s life and works were so important to our country and why we must never forget the great good that she did in her time among us.  She was a tour-de-force and a cultural ambassador without equal.

Kayla was a pioneer too.  She was one of the first to understand and embrace the medium of Bahamian television as the ideal vehicle for showcasing Bahamian music and the performing arts.

She was always looking for ways to further “democratize” Bahamian culture; to bring the exposition of Bahamian culture out of the stuffy enclaves of the snobbish few and to mount it instead so that everybody could see it, hear it, feel it, and enjoy it.

Her work at the time we attained Independence in 1973 will perhaps always stand as the finest example of Kayla’s determination to bring Bahamian culture to the masses.

Kayla’s own television show spread the good news that Bahamian culture was alive and well but it also admonished us it was something that each of us had to play a part in if we were to ensure its survival from one generation to the next against the encroachments of foreign cultural influences.   That admonition is even more compelling today.

We should all be thankful that Kayla chose to make The Bahamas the place where her life’s work would play out.  It need not have been so.

Kayla was a remarkably gifted and wonderfully trained singer who could easily have graced the concert halls of foreign capitols.  She could have had an outstanding career abroad had she wanted to take that path.  Thankfully for us, she chose a different path; a path that would lead her to sacrifice personal ambition so that she might give her life instead to the service of her country.

Kayla has come to the end of her journey here on this other side of Paradise but looking back, as we do today, we see so very clearly that the life of Kayla Lockhart-Edwards stands as a prime example of the greatness and the goodness that can come when God-given talent is combined with a love and dedication for others and for one’s own country.

Kayla was such an example and her contributions to the development of Bahamian culture place her in the front rank of those great heroes and heroines who blazed the trail for us.  They have all helped us to come to a greater appreciation and understanding of our cultural heritage.

On behalf of the Government and people of The Bahamas I express gratitude for the life of Kayla Lockhart-Edwards and I extend sincere condolences to her bereaved husband, Desmond, and entire family.

Kayla’s melodious voice is not stilled.  It will sing forever in the heart and mind of a grateful nation and in the soul of a people she served with great distinction and boundless love.

May she rest in peace.