Trinidad & Tobago Newsday
Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - In 1951, an era when young middle-class women were kept far away from the steelband movement, “Ellie” Robertson joined the Girl Pat Steel Orchestra, the first all women steelband formed in Trinidad and Tobago by the late Hazel Henley, a teacher at St Crispin’s Anglican School.
In a 2006 interview with Sunday Newsday, Robertson and another member, Pat Maurice, who were both residing in New York and had come home for Carnival, spoke of the “great fun” they had as members of “Girl Pat” under Hazel’s tutelage. “She was always very “avant garde”, and not only an academic but a talented musician, as well, who had always been fascinated by the pan,” they both said.
Eleanor Marion Robertson, or “Ellie” as she was always called, passed away on June 5 in New York.
....it was “playing pan” at 79 Picton Street, Newtown, in Hazel’s gallery, that Ellie never forgot. It was very near to the Woodbrook community, which was always about pan. Bruce Procope got the Girl Pat pans from Esso and Ellie Mannette of Invaders tuned them.
“We started practising and it was memorable for us founding members in a band of about ten, since Girl Pat started just for fun. Quite a number of people would come to listen to us practise. On the other hand a lot of people were very annoyed,” Robertson in the Newsday interview.
So annoyed said Robertson in that Newsday interview that “my school principal went to my mother and asked ‘how could you have your daughter beating pan’.”
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Condolence to the family and friends
Condolences to the Robertson family.
RIP Ellie.