The symphony of praise that transformed the Garfield Sobers Complex into a cathedral on Friday morning celebrated all facets of musical icon Richard Nathelbert Stoute, Barbados’ godfather of entertainment.
Family, friends, neighbours, the who’s who in entertainment, protégés, and dignitaries including Prime Minister Mia Mottley celebrated Stoute’s 77 years – most of which was spent serving his country on and off the stage – during an emotional song-filled service.
Stoute, who many confessed was not given the accolades he deserved despite his achievements, was praised as a musical pioneer, a one-man welfare agency, and nation builder. He was also remembered as a devoted brother, by his visually impaired sibling Mark who suggested that despite humble beginnings, Richard had emerged into a giant of a man.
The near five-hour-long service was preceded by countless tributes from those whom Stoute nurtured and catapulted into the world of entertainment through his labour of love, the Richard Stoute Teen Talent Competition, for 47 years.
Members of the audience nodded, swayed and clapped in appreciation at the musical performances from artistes including Adrian Clarke, iWeb, Trinity, The Most Honourable Anthony Gabby Carter and Kenaz Walker, Betty Payne, and Skyy Dowridge, stifling tears at some of the fond recollections.
Just after 10:30 a.m., mourners fell quiet as the service began with his white gilded casket, bearing his photo, escorted by pallbearers including Chief Executive Officer of the National Cultural Foundation Carol Roberts Reifer and singer Romancia Murray into the complex adorned with yellow floral arrangements.
After the initial formalities, including the soulful singing of Amazing Grace led by the worship team and backed by the versatile Royal Barbados Police Force Band, family members pulled back the curtains on a simple but influential life.
One of Stoute’s sons, Germany-based entertainer Ricky who was unable to return home due to contractual obligations, declared his love and gratitude for his father in a poignant virtual tribute dotted by song and tears.
“Dad, you can never know how much these words have failed me to describe the pain of losing you. Life is indeed a vapour…. But we’ll remain prayerful, faithful, grateful, and comforted knowing how much you positively affected my life and always how you shaped the lives of many others. Dad, I promise you to carry on your legacy with my brother and my sister,” he said.
His other son, Kevin, brought a touch of humour to the proceedings as he talked about his father’s trademark spotless white shoes, how he issued directions from his hospital bed to the key players in this year’s edition of the Teen Talent Competition, and his other passion, cricket.
Fighting back tears at times, the accomplished cricketer recalled that his father was his biggest supporter.
“When I was made captain of the Barbados cricket team, he travelled to watch me. I felt like a general because my first coach was my Dad. I was being watched by the man who taught me some tricks about my batting, telling me every time I bat, keep the ball on the ground, like blackbirds picking up crumbs,” Kevin recalled.
Prime Minister Mottley gave Barbadians a sense of the measure of the man whom she said embodied values that stand as lessons to all citizens.
She noted that Stoute was among the great generations of Barbadians who were born without much but who were blessed with the gift of wanting to excel.
Mottley, who shared the government’s decision to name the Amphitheatre in the National Botanical Gardens during a personal visit with Stoute just before his death, said his legacy would be preserved.
“And he said to me and the rest of us there, the right way is the only way and that is what he has lived by all of his life. I have asked that whenever the tribute goes up, that quotation goes with it. And in the days of modern technology, he was not a techie but he will come to benefit from the technology because a QR code that captures his performances and his songs will be there so that any little child or any old person and anybody visiting can go with their smartphone and they will ever be able to hear who he was,” she said.
CARICOM Ambassador David Commissiong, Stoute’s friend, culminated the tributes with an extensive eulogy that traced the life of one of 12 children born and raised in New Orleans, who became known as an “old school” stickler for discipline, good manners, and good decorum.
Tracing his rise from a member of the Opels, to being perhaps Barbados’ first child prodigy, to being crowned the Caribbean’s King of Soul in 1970, Comissiong said Richard Stoute was a master technician of a singer who excelled at a range of genres and was blessed with impeccable timing and pitch.
“Put simply: Richard Stoute was a pillar of Barbadian music and entertainment; a pillar of Barbados’ tourism industry; and a pillar of our Crop Over Festival. Without Richard Stoute’s enormous contribution and impact, the Barbados that we all live in today would be a significantly poorer society – both culturally and materially – and in its intangible spirit,” he said, insisting that Stoute deserved the nation’s highest national honour several times over.
Stoute, who leaves to mourn his four children, countless fans and a grateful nation, was laid to rest metres away from his mother in Westbury Cemetery.
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