DAUGHTER OF RUPUNUNI PIONEER DIES
(Guyana Chronicle August 16, 1976)
Margaret Orealla daughter of Rupununi pioneer Henry Melville died at her Manari Ranch on August 6 after a long illness.She requested to be taken from her bed at the St. Joseph Mercy Hospital back to Manari where she had lived for 50 years.And there she died.
Her father Henry Melville had come to Guyana and settled in the Rupununi in 1890, the first European to live in Wapishiana country .
There he developed a flourishing ranch at Dadanawa and later he married a Wapishiana Margaret’s mother.
When Roman Catholic Bishop Galton and Fr. Cary-Elwes made their first visit to the area in 1909 all the Melville children were baptized.
In 1926 Margaret Melville married Theodore Orealla and settled at Manari seven miles from Lethem and they too developed a flourishing cattle ranch.
Her husband died in 1947 and the responsibility for running the ranch became her’s alone.
When her stock was hard hit by foot and mouth disease in 1961 she managed to keep the ranch going by making its spacious rooms available for the accommodation of guests.
And so the Manari Guest House was born.
Today with two wings added Manari provides excellent accommodation and its late manageress had become something of an institution well known by the thousands , both from home and overseas, who have stayed there at one time or another, finding Manari a home away from home base from which the picturesque Rupununi savannah could be explored.
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OSCAR DISAGREED WITH THE PREACHER
(Daily Chronicle March 7, 1976)
Oscar was passing a Jordanite meeting in Saffon Street Sunday night when he took exception to what the pastor was saying.
A city magistrate heard the story yesterday when Oscar appeared charged with using indecent language.
“It was a Jordanite meeting and I disagreed with what the man was talking. A lot of people disagree too but they ent got the guts to talk out like me,” he told the Court.
“The preacher was preaching. He talking about heavenly God and (h) earthly God but I believe in the earthly God.
“The people’s eyes open today and we believe in a natural form not when you dead hereafter.”
Oscar denied abusing the preacher but after a pause he said: “Is not I curse the preacher first; he curse me first and I curse he back. That is the story your worship.”
The magistrate told Oscar that even if he did not agree with what the preacher said he had no right to disturb the service.
“I am warning you that you do not give vent to your feelings this way,” the magistrate said as he reprimanded and discharged the charge against him.
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MAN WITH CHICKEN BONE IN CHEST DIES AFTER A WEEK
(Guyana Chronicle July 30, 1976)
A farmer who it is believed carried a chicken bone in his chest for about one week died at the Georgetown Hospital on Wednesday night.
Frank Studa, 62, of Saffon Street Georgetown was reported to have eaten fried chicken when a bone about three inches long slipped down his throat.
Lilian Fraser who said that she had been living with him for about twenty five years and advised him to go and see a doctor but he said he would be all right, she told the Guyana Chronicle.
A few days after the bone slipped down his throat he complained of feeling a pain in his chest but still insisted that he did not want to see a doctor.
Last Wednesday his condition worsened and he was taken to hospital and admitted but died some hours later.
Fraser said that Studa ran a farm at Dora Demerara River for years and had applied for more land along the Linden Highway.
She added that it was only two months ago that his application to farm along the Highway was approved and he had intended starting there shortly.
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COUNCIL SHELVES PLAN TO CONVERT BOURDA CEMETERY INTO PARK
(Daily Chronicle May 26, 1976)
The Georgetown City Council has decided to shelve its plan to convert the Bourda Cemetery into a park.
The decision was taken at last Monday’s statutory meeting of the Council when Councillors accepted the recommendations of the City Works Committee.
The Council had planned cutting a roadway through the cemetery but after considering a letter from the National Trust, the Works Committee recommended that no further action be taken at this point in time.
The National Trust in its letter to the Council expressed the view that the Bourda Cemetery is an important historical site where the remains of several persons who have made important and significant contributions to the political, economic and social history of Guyana are entombed.
The National Trust had further requested an interview with the Council regarding buildings and other sites which the Trust considers worthy of preservation.
Clifford Stanley can be reached to discuss any of the foregoing articles at cliffantony@gmail.com or cell phone # 657 2043.