Caribbean community pays tribute to former
SVG netball star, cultural figure Debra Bobb
Caribbean Life, JANUARY 21-27, 2022 39
By Nelson A. King
Relatives, friends and Vincentian
community leaders joined the Caribbean
community in New York Friday evening
in paying their last respects to Debra
Bobb, a former national netball star
in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and
founding member of the United Vincie
Cultural Group of Brooklyn (UVCGB),
who died suddenly at her home in East
New York in Brooklyn on Sun., Dec. 26.
She was 57.
Despite the surge in COVID-19 cases
in New York, mourners followed COVID-
19 guidelines in wearing masks and
hand-sanitizing during the three-hourlong
funeral service at Miracle Temple
Ministries International, an evangelical
church in the Brownsville section of
Brooklyn, where Bobb’s eldest sister,
Pastor Dr. Roxie Morris, also a former
national netball star in St. Vincent
and the Grenadines, is a long-standing
member.
In tributes after tributes, mourners
remembered Bobb, who worked for 22
uninterrupted years at telecommunications
giant Verizon until her death, as a
jovial, free-giving, loving, caring, devoted,
committed, selfless and patriotic person,
among other superlatives.
“I come here with a very heavy heart,”
said Stephen Gabriel, Bobb’s eldest
brother, before reading Ecclesiastes 3:1-
11, “To everything there is a season…”
“It’s been very hard,” he added. “I’ll
try my best.”
Before singing the Lord’s Prayer,
Erlene Williams-King, a member of
the Brooklyn-based Council of St. Vincent
and the Grenadines Organizations,
U.SA., Inc. (COSAGO), the umbrella Vincentian
group in the United States, said
she knew Bobb “very, very well”, recalling
that they once travelled to St. Vincent
and the Grenadines, where Bobb
loaned her an evening gown to wear in
order for Williams-King to perform at a
concert since her luggage was delayed
because of air transportation issues.
“It was a very beautiful black gown,”
Williams-King said. “I didn’t want to
give it back, but I did. I was home for two
weeks without my luggage.”
Aunt Esme Bynoe said she was Bobb’s
“baby nurse.”
“My heart is very, very broken,” she
told mourners. “The last time I saw her
was 2019. Tonight, I’m here but not here.
People, when people dead (die), bawl
(laughter).”
Ashley DeShong, another brother,
said he was shocked when he learned
about her sister’s passing, adding that
politics was a major topic in their discussions.
“The battle lines were always drawn
on many topics,” he said. “We shared a
father together – different mother – but
we shared one thing in common, love.”
Nephew Codi Bobb said Bobb’s words
and memories “resound” in his mind.
“Aunty Debbie, you gave until it
hurts,” he said. “You were a woman of
action.”
William Tinglin, a family friend,
described Bobb as “funny, kind, selfless,
giver, bossy and attentive.”
“Debbie was a true example of what
it is to give,” he said. “You live a life of
memorable moments.”
St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ United
States Consul General Howie Prince
told the family that memories of Bobb
will “be running all over your minds for
a very long time,” using partial words
from 2 Timothy: “She has fought a good
fight…”
COSAGO President Laverne McDowald
Thompson said Bobb was a former
representative for UVCGB and the Brooklyn
based Girls High School Alumnae,
Inc. on the Council.
“Debbie had helped the organization
to grow,” she said, reading a poem, captioned
“Her Journey Has Just Began.”
Jamaican Sharon Spencer, a former
coach for the Explorers Netball Club in
Brooklyn, said she first met Bobb on the
netball court in Brooklyn 28 years ago.
“Debbie was skillful, knowledgeable of
the game but also tricky,” she said. “One
of her characteristics was her willingness
to take on the challenge.
“Debbie had high ideals,” she added.
“Anything she took on, she will give 150
percent, but also very stubborn. You had
to see these guys on the court.”
Debra Karen Bobb was born on
Thursday, Oct. 22, 1964, in Vermont,
South Leeward, St. Vincent and the
Grenadines, to the late Alister O’Neil
Irish-Bobb, also known as “Leon”, and
Rosemarie Bobb.
Bobb and her siblings were raised by
their maternal grandmother, the late
Caryl Ernestine Wiseman, affectionately
called “Miss Carol,” in Campden Park,
South Leeward, who became guardian
of their household.
Rosemarie Bobb, a nurse at the then
Kingstown General and Georgetown
Hospitals, migrated to the United States
in 1972. Bobb’s father had migrated to
the United Kingdom.
In her eulogy, Pastor Morris said losing
Bobb is “difficult, but we refused to
ask God, because he knows everything.
“For us, as a family, it’s never going
to be replaced,” she said. “He called her
home (crying).
“Debbie, our hero,” Dr. Morris added.
“She was my greatest supporter. Debbie
believed in family. For my family, we’re
going to get through this.”
Dr. Morris said Bobb “loved netball
and became very good at it, which
earned her a place on the St. Vincent
and the Grenadines National Netball
Team and played at the Center and Wing
Attack positions.”
She said she, Bobb and youngest sister,
Dailene, often jogged from Campden
Park to the Nutricia Netball Center in
Kingstown to get to netball training on
time.
Dr. Morris said Bobb played on the
GHS Netball team (School), the Ricks’
Superstars team (Club), the Nyabhingi
team (Village) and the SVG National
team.
Dr. Morris said Bobb graduated from
the St. Vincent Girls’ High School and
began working at the Canadian Imperial
Bank of Commerce as a part-time
employee.
Not very long after, she secured
employment at the St. Vincent Children’s
Wear as an accounts clerk, where she
worked until her migration to the United
States in 1990 to join her mother.
Dr. Morris said Bobb worked as a
nanny, postal worker and retailer at
Macy’s Department Store before securing
employment at Verizon as an administrative
assistant, “where she worked
for the last 22 years up to the time of
her demise.
“Debbie worked assiduously and
exhibited excellent work ethics, personally
and professionally,” Dr. Morris said.
“She was punctual, completed her tasks
on time and had a professional attitude.
Members of the UVCGB, of which
Bobb was “instrumental” in forming,
according to Dr. Morris, gave Bobb
a rousing send-off with the heartwrenching
“In the Arms of Sweet Deliverance.”
The late SVG netball star, Debra Bobb. Family of Debra Bobb
St. Vincent and the Grenadines Consul
General, Howie Prince pays tribute.
Photo by Nelson A. King
Judith “Baffy” Cuffy leads United
Vincie Cultural Group of Brooklyn in
paying tribute with “In the Arms of
Sweet Deliverance.” Photo by Nelson A.
King