By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 14, 2023 – The ordination of Father Devereaux King at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral in Nassau, Bahamas, on Tuesday, January 13, was an extremely proud occasion for me as a grandson of Benjamin and Mabel Elliott of Stanyard Creek, Andros. I watched the service, conducted by the Most Reverend Patrick Pinder, Archbishop of Nassau, on my laptop and lost my battle to fight back tears several times.
Father Devereaux’s mother is Leonardette Ross King, daughter of the late Sylvia Elliott Ross, who was the eldest of seven grandchildren who up at Andros with Papa and Mama. In addition to myself, the other five grandchildren were my late sister, Elthreada Brown McPhee; cousins Agnes, Beryl and John, children of Uncle Israel “Lee” Elliott; and my late cousin Alphonso “Boogaloo” Elliott, a son of my Uncle Audley Elliott.
Although Sylvia Elliott Ross was my first cousin, I grew up calling her Aunt Sylvia because she and Papa and Mama’s youngest daughter, Maria Elliott Forbes, were around the same age and they grew up like sisters. Both were very instrumental in steering my life in the right direction during those formative years when young minds are so impressionable and vulnerable to inculcating life-long bad habits.
The younger grandchildren were indeed fortunate to have two very gifted and imaginative persons like Aunt Sylvia and Aunt Maria as mentors and guiding lights growing up in the 1940s and 1950s on the Western Ridge of Stanyard Creek. Both were “monitors” at Stanyard Creek All-Age School, which meant that us younger grandchildren had the benefit of two “teachers” living in the same house with us. They both ended up choosing teaching as their life-long careers, and there are unquestionably many students in New Providence who can vouch, as I certainly can, for the fact that Maria Forbes and Sylvia Ross were two excellent teachers.
Both were also staunch disciplinarians, a trait they no doubt picked up from Papa, a no-nonsense deeply religious man whose influence in the community was probably not matched by any other individual in Stanyard Creek. Papa owned the “major” grocery store, small though it was, on the Western Ridge and our family compound consisted of a “big” and “small” house as well as a separate structure that was used as a kitchen. Papa had a very liberal policy with regard to regular customers of the grocery store. They could “trust” things they needed if they didn’t have the money at the time and pay whenever they got it.
Whatever influence Papa had as a grocer paled in comparison to when he donned his cassock as a catechist at Stanyard Creek’s St. Rita’s Roman Catholic Church. The priest assigned to Andros generally made his rounds of the various settlements every two weeks, and Papa was responsible for conducting Mass those Sundays when the priest was not there. So, we all grew up as very devout and committed Roman Catholics. Indeed, attending church three times on Sundays—morning Mass, Sunday School and Evening Mass—was the norm for the Elliott household.
Memories of those wonderful, wonderful years in Stanyard Creek flooded my mind as I watched Aunt Sylvia’s grandson, Father Devereaux King, being ordained to the Priesthood.
I am indeed extremely proud of my cousin Devereaux, whom I have always called Peetie, a nickname given to him from he was a baby, probably before he could walk and talk. Peetie grew up demonstrating a deep commitment to the Church from his childhood years, religiously attending Mass at our family’s parish church, Our Lady of the Holy Souls Catholic Church, through Deveaux Street in the Over-the-Hill area of Nassau.
It was therefore not surprising to me when Peetie decided to pursue studies to become a priest, although he initially wanted to be a chef and after high school he subsequently graduated from the culinary school of the College of The Bahamas, which is now the University of The Bahamas, before entering Saint John Vianney College Seminary in Miami.
Having been an altarboy at St. Rita’s in Stanyard Creek and at Our Lady’s after my family relocated to Nassau in 1952, my spiritual foundation in the Roman Catholic Church remains concrete, although my fidelity to the religious principles instilled in me by my grandparents waned in my late teens and twenties. Currently, however, my Lord and Savior is in the driver’s seat of my life and I am looking forward to being blessed by Father Devereaux on my next visit to Nassau.
