60 years on, Ruby Steer cherishes Gleaner pre-Independence gift
Published:Monday | July 11, 2022 | 12:07 AMCarl Gilchrist/Gleaner Writer
On May 24, 1962, two and a half months before Jamaica gained Independence, The Gleaner published a photo of Ruby Steer, then 16 years old, after she had won a set of Encyclopaedia Brittanica Junior in the newspaper’s Tell Me Why feature.
Now, 60 years later, Steer, a resident of St Ann, still has the encyclopaedia set, which she has kept in excellent condition.
“It’s wonderful that somebody still remembers me. Today, I am feeling good and blessed,” she said during a recent visit to her home in Greenwich Acres in Drax Hall, St Ann.
Recounting the circumstances that led to her winning the prize, Steer said it all happened by chance one day while packing up materials at Claremont Elementary School before going on holiday.
“I found this Gleaner in the teacher’s office. I started looking through it and at the back of The Gleaner, I saw Tell Me Why,” she said.
“So, mi say, mi mus’ can ask dem dis yah question yah – why are grasshoppers green? Or something to that effect. Mi frighten one day mi get a call say my topic was selected.”
The encyclopaedias served the entire family the decades. The publication of the photo brought much pride, not just for her, but for family and friends.
Steer remembers, just weeks later when Jamaica celebrated gaining Independence, the excitement at Prosper Hall in Claremont, where community members gathered to mark the occasion.
“The school had something up there. We marched go down there with candlelight and white frock in the dark. And we had items and things down there. It was well attended.
“Mi get one cup, but mi nuh know weh it deh. Jus’ like when the Queen was crowned, in 1952, mi get one cup.”
But after that photo was published in 1962, how did Steer’s life evolve?
On the day the picture was taken, she was heading out to sit the First Jamaica Local Examination, in which she was successful. She progressed to the Second and Third Local exams and went into teaching for “a few years”.
She first taught at Steer Town Primary in 1964 before a similar role at Village Primary in Faith’s Pen, Cavaliers, in St Catherine, among others.
After several years in the classroom, she made a career shift and became a member of the Island Special Constabulary Force (ISCF) in 1973.
Serving as a special constable for 33 years, Steer was stationed at St Ann’s Bay, where she rose to the rank of sergeant. She retired in 2006.
“It was good, but you also have the bad part of it. You meet a lot of people, and my colleagues were cooperative,” she said of her time in the ISCF, which was later subsumed into the Jamaica Constabulary Force.
Steer also spent several years at Intercontinental Hotel in Ocho Rios – now Moon Palace – working there in the days and reporting to the station later for night duty. She later worked solely as a law officer.
“Life has been good. I can’t complain, because God is good all the time and He’s right there when I’m sick, too,” she said.
Steer has three daughters and a son, who happens to be radio personality Courtney Wallace.
Alicia and Karen, two of her daughters who live with her, have nothing but praise for their beloved mother.
“If we were to start all over again, and the Father asked if you would like to change your mom, yes or no, I would never change her,” said Alicia of the single mother.
“... When she was in the police force, all the prisoners dem call her mother, so we had to share with everybody. “