Honouring Cayman's Women - Theoline L. McCoy
Mrs Theoline McCoy and Harry McCoy on a cruise from New York to Mexico on the Sun Princess
When one thinks of women of the 1920's, demure, conservative and quiet are some adjectives that may come to their minds. There were women who embodied these qualities, and then there were women who occupied the other end of the continuum. These women challenged the status quo, not because they enjoyed being disruptive, but because their passion for life could not be contained by society's unyielding rules.
Theoline L. McCoy (nee Conolly) was one of those women. Born April 23, 1919, the only daughter out of three children, Mrs. Theoline lived a life that shone as boldly as the stars in the sky. Her parents, Austin and Sarah Conolly of East End would have been proud of their daughter: she was an educator, a world traveller and an avid community leader.
Ms. Theoline was unconventional in many ways and carried her free spirit from her childhood throughout life. "I was a bit of a tomboy, because I had no girls to play with. So whatever they did, I did. I used to be out on the boats, [waded] along the beach with the boys, played marbles with them, spin gigs with them, anything they did I did; climbed trees too," said Ms. Theoline.
As a young girl, Ms. Theoline learned both the alphabet and how to read well before the required age to enter school. She loved school, especially playtime. The only blemish during her school days was her organ lessons, given by her aunt.
The Conolly family had a tradition where all the women learned to play the organ. Ms. Theoline resented this intrusion on her morning playtime as lessons took place for an hour prior to school. This blemish turned into a blessing in disguise as Ms. Theoline went on to play the organ for community events, her family's enjoyment, and the church.
The seeds of Ms. Theoline's love for travel were probably sown as she, along with her bothers and mother would process the mail that came to and from the island. Mr. Austin Conolly, in addition to being the Government's representative for the remote district of East End, was also a sub-postmaster. When busy attending to the Government's business in town, his family would take on the task. Ms. Theoline recalled that there was not a large volume of mail coming out of East End, but the majority of packages and mail that were sent came from mail order companies. For the families that could afford to order from these catalogues, they would make arrangements for family based in the states to make the order and supply the cash. It was customary for men who were away at sea or family working abroad to help their families in this manner.
In the 1930's and beyond, East End was well known for being the best producer of Silver Thatch 'tops' that were used in ropemaking. Hence ropemaking became the mainstay for many people in their community. As part of her 'training' Ms. Theoline was expected to learn "to do certain dishes, the handwork, and the music (the organ)." However, she was keen to note that boys had a similar expectation to fulfil, in terms of helping their father with other household, carpentry or farming work.
To highlight her dedication, Ms. Theoline became a 'pupil teacher' (teacher's aide) only after taking the exam three times. Perhaps flunking the exam only made her more determined to be a teacher and ignited the passion for teaching that she developed throughout her career. Ms. Theoline recalls that she loved teaching and being with the children despite the lack of equipment and other challenges that existed. She had to teach students from a blackboard, many of whom did not even have a slate to record the lesson. Lessons were given one topic at a time and testing was done more frequently: at the end of each week. Even with all of these challenges she was quite proud of the fact that her students flourished. She credits their success to the vibrant and healthy Teacher's Association that met, formulated their own curriculum and worked towards the common goal of upgrading the schools' standards between inspection periods. This Association involved both the public and private schools to ensure consistency throughout the island.
After a few years as an assistant teacher in a variety of schools, Ms. Theoline went on to Shortwood Teacher Training College in Jamaica. Explaining why she took such a bold move, Ms. Theoline said "well, to be honest, I just had a feeling that I wanted to further my education. I couldn't say in teaching especially, and yet I loved teaching. But I just wanted to get some further study." And so she did. Her studies took her as near as Jamaica and as far as Wales and helped her develop an illustrious career in education.
We could write volumes about Ms. Theoline's four decades of service to education, her OBE award, and her unfaltering participation in the Inner Wheel Club, the Pink Ladies and the church choir. However, what her three children, Harwell Jr., Cheryl and Keith and Harwell Snr., her husband of more than forty years would remember most about Ms. Theoline is her love for travelling. Travelling set her spirit free, so throughout her life she visited countries on all five continents.
Sources for this work were drawn from the holdings of the Cayman Islands National Archive.