OBIT: T&T icon Pat Bishop dies at POS General Hospital

Music and culture icon Pat Bishop died Saturday in the emergency facility of the Port of Spain General Hospital. She was 71.

A media release from the Office of Minister of Planning and the Economy said Bishop was rushed to the hospital by ambulance.

She fell ill with what was preliminarily diagnosed as a stroke and heart attack, the release stated.

Bishop was at the time attending a meeting of the High Level Expert Panel to Guide the Implementation of Arts, Cultural and Entrepreneurial Projects and the Patriotism Project at the Ministry.

Planning Minister Dr Bhoe Tewarie told local media doctors tried their best to revive her. He confirmed that she died at the hospital at 5:20pm.

“I went with her to the hospital, so did two members from the meeting, Rubadiri Victor and Kiran Akal," Tewari said.

"We were able to break the very, very bad news to her sister and as you can imagine, she was also upset. I think all three of us were in a kind of shock. It was not a nice experience as Pat was someone who was a significant contributor to this country for years. So from that point of view it's been a bad day."

The Minister offered his deepest condolences to the Bishop family.

Pat Bishop was one of Trinidad & Tobago's best known artist and cultural activists. She was vocal on issues related to culture and the arts. Last year that landed year in trouble when the culture ministry in the previous Manning administration banned her from speaking at the launch of an exhibition at the national museum.

She was the holder of Trinidad & Tobago's highest award -The Trinity Cross (now knows as the Order of Trinidad and Tobago) and was very active in service to her country in fields as diverse as environmental education, Government economic policy and the development of Carnival.

She directed the Lydian Singers in at least thirty concerts a year. In 1994 the University of the West Indies honoured her with the Hon. D.Litt.

According to the website of the Lydian Singers, she had hoped "to retire as soon as possible" to a life of books and reading, painting, playing other people's music privately and meeting a few friends from time to time for some talk over good food and a little wine."