Ernest Ranglin is a Jamaican guitarist and composer who established his career while working as a session guitarist and music director for various Jamaican record labels including Studio One and Island Records. Ranglin played guitar on many early ska recordings and helped create the rhythmic guitar style that defined the form. Ranglin has worked with Theophilus Beckford, Jimmy Cliff, Monty Alexander, Prince Buster, the Skatalites, Bob Marley and the Eric Deans Orchestra. He is noted for a chordal and rhythmic approach that blends jazz, mento and reggae with percussive guitar solos incorporating rhythm 'n' blues and jazz inflections.
Brigitte Ann Foster-Hylton OD is a Jamaican 100m hurdler. She was the World Champion over 100m hurdles in 2009.
Millicent Dolly May Small CD was a Jamaican singer who is best known for her 1964 hit "My Boy Lollipop". The song reached number two in both the UK and US charts and sold over seven million copies worldwide. It was also the first major hit for Island Records and helped to achieve the label its mainstream success. She was the Caribbean's first international recording star and its most successful female performer.
Allan Hope CD, better known as Mutabaruka, is a Jamaican Rastafari dub poet, musician, actor, educator, and talk-show host, who developed two of Jamaica's most popular radio programmes, The Cutting Edge and Steppin' Razor. His name comes from the Rwandan language and translates as "one who is always victorious". His themes include politics, culture, Black liberation, social oppression, discrimination, poverty, racism, sexism, and religion.
Maureen Holloway is a Canadian radio personality, entertainer and comedian who is best known for her radio segments The Last Word. Until September 1, 2014, Holloway used to broadcast live, weekday mornings, in consecutive segments with the hosts of Canadian morning shows in various cities.
Marcia Llyneth Griffiths OJ OD is a Jamaican singer. One reviewer described her by noting "she is known primarily for her strong, smooth-as-mousse love songs and captivating live performances".
The Order of Distinction is a national order in the Jamaican honours system. It is the sixth in order of precedence of the Orders of Societies of Honour, which were instituted by an Act of Parliament in 1968. The motto of the Order is "Distinction Through Service".
Carolyn Cooper CD is a Jamaican author, essayist and literary scholar. She is a former professor of Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. From 1975 to 1980, she was an assistant professor at Atlantic Union College in South Lancaster, Massachusetts. In 1980, she was appointed as a lecturer in the Department of Literatures in English at the University of the West Indies (UWI), where she continued to work until her retirement as a professor in 2017. Also a newspaper journalist, Cooper writes a weekly column for the Sunday Gleaner.
Louise Simone Bennett-Coverley or Miss Lou, was a Jamaican poet, folklorist, writer, and educator. Writing and performing her poems in Jamaican Patois or Creole, Bennett worked to preserve the practice of presenting poetry, folk songs and stories in patois, establishing the validity of local languages for literary expression.
Glenroy "Glen" Campbell is a Jamaican actor and comedian, known for his role in the 1980s Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation television series Titus in Town.
Dwight Pinkney OD, also known as Brother Dee, is a Jamaican guitarist best known for his work as a session musician and as a member of Zap Pow and the Roots Radics, who since 1999 has recorded as a solo artist.
Louis Marriott was a Jamaican actor, director, writer, broadcaster, the executive officer of the Michael Manley Foundation, and member of the Performing Right Society, Jamaica Federation of Musicians, and founding member of the Jamaica Association of Dramatic Artists.
Ian Randle OD is a Jamaican publisher. He is the founder of an eponymous independent publishing company whose main focus is on English-language readers. He has won awards including the Prince Claus Award in 2012 and the 2019 Bocas Henry Swanzy Award for distinguished service to Caribbean letter.
Dahlia Harris is a Jamaican actress, television and radio personality, public speaker, and film and theatre director.
Shirley Miller is a Jamaican attorney and one of the first women admitted as Queen's Counsel in the Caribbean. Admitted to the inner bar in 1971, she became the first Queen's Counsel in Jamaica and has served in numerous capacities, including as head of the Legal Reform Department and on the Electoral Advisory Committee. She served on a committee of three to review Jamaica's Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms and was honored as a commander in the Order of Distinction, as well as receiving the Order of Jamaica for her contributions to legal reform.
Leonie Evadne Forbes OD was a Jamaican actress, broadcaster, and producer who was active in theatre, radio, and television.
Michelle Downer, commonly known as D'Angel, is a Jamaican reggae singer, actress, model, and brand ambassador. She has also given motivational speeches. In 2017, she released No Worries with Spice. The Gleaner calls her the First Lady of dancehall.
Barbara Joy Gloudon was a Jamaican writer. She received two Seprod Awards from the Press Association of Jamaica and Order of Distinction. Gloudon was a scriptwriter for Jamaica's Little Theatre Movement (LTM) and wrote radio drama. She hosted a radio talk show for thirty years and became chair of the LTM. She was granted the Order of Jamaica in 1992 and became a fellow of the Institute of Jamaica in 2012.
Enid Gonsalves, OD was a Jamaican teacher and community activist from Hanover Parish, Jamaica. She was recognized throughout her career with many distinctions including the Governor General's Achievement Award and the Prime Minister's Medal for Community Service and Education. In 2008 she was honoured as an officer in the Order of Distinction and the following year, received the Holy See's Medal of Good Merit.
Rita Humphries-Lewin OJ CD is a Jamaican retired stockbroker and businesswoman. She was the first woman to chair the Jamaica Stock Exchange and the first woman to chair a stock exchange in the Caribbean. She founded Barita Investments Limited in 1977, which was the oldest stock brokerage firm in Jamaica by the time she retired in 2021.
