Lady Guymine dies at 76

May 29, 2009 News

Lady Guymine

Guyanese calypso and cultural phenomenon, Monica Chopperfield, aka Lady Guymine, Lady Monica and Lady Guybau died early yesterday morning at age 76, reportedly after battling cancer.
Copperfield returned to the local shores several weeks ago and was residing with her daughter.
A close friend of hers told this publication that she fell ill three years ago and was hospitalised in the USA but recovered after she successfully underwent surgery for a brain tumour. Calls to her relatives went unanswered yesterday.

Popularly known for her hit calypso ‘Granny Fit’ she was born on July 31, 1932, in Berbice; lived and performed across Guyana and the region as well as New York but drew her last breath at her home in Kitty at about 7:00hrs yesterday.
On Friday, September 12, 2008, the Guyana Cultural Association New York joined with Howard McLeod and Les Slater, promoters of the annual Mother’s Day Concert and other Caribbean organizations as well as friends, to salute Lady Guymine, as the pride of Guyana and the Caribbean through a benefit concert.
On May 18, 2006, officials of the Guyana Folk Festival Organization,appealed to the Guyanese community to come to the help of the legendary singer who was seriously ill at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York.The cause of the illness was not revealed and at the time, aged 74; Monica Chopperfield had no relatives close by her side.

Celebrating her life,the Guyana Folk Festival committee dubbed Lady Guymine “an important Caribbean 20th century calypsonian.”
Her performing career started in a show produced by Zelda Martindale at the roofless Olympic Cinema on Lombard Street as ‘Baby Monica.’
She was the daughter of Mary Skeete, a singer of classical music, whose contemporaries included Madame Fraser-Denny and Iris Grimes.
Chopperfield shared the stage with some of the world’s leading performers and performed in many musical genres. She travelled extensively as a cast member of Zelda Martindale’s many shows leaving her indelible mark on patrons in cinemas at halls and also in rice mills.

Granny fit , Granny Fit

However,Martindale resigned from show business in British Guiana, but Chopperfield did not. She established her balladeer abilities as a member of the Sam Chase and Jack Mellow Company after which her next stop was the Syncopators Band as one of two lead innovative jazz and swing vocalists.
As Lady Guybau in 1966, Chopperfield ventured into the calypso realm through participation in the Mashramani celebrations in Mackenzie and up until her demise there was no looking back.
Her prowess gained her a spot in the Mighty Sparrow’s camp and for two years she toured with him, performing in his calypso tent in Trinidad and Tobago.
Lady Guymine, recognised as one of the important Caribbean 20th century calypsonians, while alive, noted that her stage name reflected the changes in the bauxite industry – from Guybau to Guymine.
In 1985,she ranked Number 4 at the World Calypso Competition and was a fixture at the Mothers Day shows in New York until she returned to Guyana.

Among Lady Guymine’s fortunes, was her being able to work some of Guyana’s most versatile calypsonians including ‘32,’ Lord Canary, and Lord Inventor all of whom composed some of her most popular calypsos.
Lady Guymine has a special fondness for the creative space in Georgetown that includes Bourda, Regent Street, Charlotte Street, Wellington Street and Robb Street. It was the location of cinemas, record stores, dance halls, and show promoters. Musicians could meet one another and observe various aspects of Guyana’s social, cultural, and political life.

Lady Guymine has experimented with many Guyanese musical flavours and was particularly proud of the masquerade flounce in her rendition of 32’s,”
The Donkey Story”.
The 2003 receiver of the Guyana Cultural Association/Guyana Folk Festival Wordsworth McAndrew Award, was a grandmother at the time of her demise.