Island Nation Mourns Leader, an LDS Pioneer

He was a humble man who joined the Church late in life and served as the first branch president in Kingstown, Saint Vincent. But his fellow citizens knew him as the first chief minister of their young country, and they lined the streets for his funeral cortege.

Ebeneezer Theodore Joshua, who died March 14, was an influential leader in helping his country seek independence from Great Britain. When Saint Vincent was granted an advanced constitution in 1960, he became its first chief minister. Full independence for the Caribbean island nation came in 1979.

Brother Joshua joined the Church in 1980. He and his wife, Ivy, were later sealed in the temple. He was eighty-two at the time of his death.

His funeral, held in the Kingstown meetinghouse, was televised in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Elder G. Jay Hughes, who is serving in the West Indies Mission with his wife, Arva, spoke of the plan of salvation and other gospel principles. Selected government officials also spoke.

An estimated thirty thousand to forty thousand people watched the funeral procession afterward. Many of them followed along, singing songs associated with Brother Joshua’s independence movement of past decades.