Keith Smith has died

Keith Smith receives the Hummingbird Medal
Keith Edmund Bernard Smith receives the Hummingbird Medal (Silver)
from the President of T&T Professor Emeritus George Maxwell Richards
for his role in Journalism at the 2009 Independence Awards

Veteran journalist Keith Smith has passed away. He lost his battle with cancer at 3.05 this morning.

Smith’s career as a journalist spanned more than four decades. The Keith Smith Column, in the Express, widened his audience, making him a household name.

Smith’s close friend, Express Features Editor Deborah John said “one of his proudest moments was when he was invited to read his column ‘Under the Trees’ at Hotel Normandie.”
Full Article : trinidadexpress.com

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Keith Smith

Foreign Affairs Minister Dr. Surujrattan Rambachan extends his deepest condolences to the family of Keith Smith who died Tuesday morning after a battle with cancer.

In eulogizing the Veteran Print Journalist, the Minister said Smith represented an era in Journalism that respected and upheld the highest standards in the Profession, ensuring accuracy and balance in his reporting and even when he shared his personal perspectives, they were carefully researched and skillfully penned.

Minister Rambachan said he admired Keith Smith for his conviction to improve, through his writings, the life of LAVENTILLIANS, the community which he never left and to which he gave so much inspiration.

“To his family, I extend my personal condolences and those of my Ministry and to the MEDIA Fraternity, I ask you to honour his name by practicing, as he did, the highest standards of Journalism”.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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Keith Smith's Send-Off

Brian Mc Farlane’s Keith Smith Memorial in pictures
February 11, 2011

Keith Smith’s Wake in Laventille in pictures
February 11, 2011

Keith Smith’s Send-Off in pictures
February 12, 2011

10 thoughts on “Keith Smith has died”

  1. Keith Smith passes on
    Veteran journalist Keith Smith died yesterday morning at 3 am at his home on Old St Joseph Road, Laventille.

    Media Mourns

    Tributes pour in for Keith Smith
    Keith Smith was the most outstanding literary talent to have emerged in this country in the post-Independence era.

    From trail-blazer to T&T’s most popular columnist

    Remembering Keith
    He was one of the most remarkable men I’ll ever meet. He was certainly the most gifted writer I’ve known, and that based on the most lightweight of literary forms, the newspaper column.

    PM: he was a national icon
    Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar says she is truly saddened by the loss of Smith.

    Pan Trinbago pays tribute to Keith Smith

    Keith Smith: Shango rhythms

  2. Back in the late 70’s my Husband introduce me to Keith, they were good friends Owen & I will like to send our sympathy to the Smith family. We live in Orlando and will not be able to pay respect in person.

  3. I know he is in a better place now. Just hope the person taking his place no they have a large shoe to fill.”IN LIFE SOME AXES CANNOT BE AVOIDED WHEN STRIP OF CHOICE”

  4. Keith Smith: Silent sounds the drums
    “Ah hear that lil feller was real miserable,” the taxi-driver said. He’ll never know how close I came, at that moment, to cutting him off for life, “that lil feller” being the dead Adrian Richards, the taxi, at the time, passing in front of the house next to where ace tuner Bertie Marshall used to live, the yellow police ribbon marking it as the fatal crime scene that it was.

    ‘Keith gave voice to the common man’
    The Trinidad & Tobago Publishers and Broadcasters Association (TTPBA) is extremely saddened by the passing of journalist par excellence, Keith Smith, on Tuesday February 8, and extend condolences to his family, friends and colleagues of the Express, the organisation said in a statement paying tribute to him.

    ‘He was pure iron man’
    Former CCN Journalist Julian Rogers, now General Manager Observer Media Group, Antigua joined those yesterday paying tribute to the late Keith Smith.

    Maxie Cuffie: A great loss to journalism
    Since his passing on Tuesday, tributes to former Express editor-at-large Keith Smith have poured in from a wide cross-section of people, including former colleagues, friends, readers and even from people holding some of the highest offices in the land.

  5. I used to work with Keith Smith back in 1978, when I was a part time photographer and proof reader at the Express Newspapers. He was always making me laugh with his jokes.I use to bring him giant avocadoes from home and he would always say to me “Me and you going to get real fat soon eating all them Zabocas man!”
    I laugh so hard because I was a skinny young man at that time who love to eat at the Express cafeteria with him,especially when they were serving callaloo,dasheen,watercress, cucumber salad, rice and pigeon peas.Keith Smith this Callaloo I will be making this Sunday is dedicated to you, I always enjoy sharing a good meal with you !

  6. Keith was a brilliant man , very simple and down to earth. Stayed in his home town to inspire his surroundings.
    He was the true meaning of where whe worked. ” THE EXPRESS ”
    He did Expressed himself.
    Long live the good writer . May God Rest His Soul.

    Trini living in NY

  7. A fitting send-off for Keith
    HOW does one mourn at a funeral where the Laventille Rhythm Section is playing? At yesterday’s funeral service for journalist Keith Smith, most mourners had difficulty ignoring that unmistakable…

    …’Let Keith’s life be a lesson for living’

    Goodbye, genius
    Keith Smith was the “Casual Genius” committed to discovery of his country and self and to getting the country to appreciate and celebrate its value.

    Those who paid tribute

    Enjoy the banquet, Keith

    Martin Daly: Playing one tune
    I had the pleasure of having Keith Smith at my home before illness restricted his freedom of movement. His visit authenticated the quality of the corn soup which he pronounced was very good.

    A diamond that remained uncut
    It’s the kind of story Keith Smith would have relished. “From the peak of the power pyramid to the shame of Sharm el-Sheik”:

  8. The late Keith Smith laid to rest

    Keith Smith: One for the books
    I have often wondered what people who do not read do to fill their time. I have often asked friends of mine who do not read the question but the look of surprise on their faces deters me from pressing the point, the surprise stemming not so much from the question but from the fact that it had been asked at all.

    Michael Harris: A different kind of hero
    On Saturday, we said our final farewell to a true hero of our land. Years of imported history and Hollywood have conspired to plant in our imaginations a concept of a hero as a person who is, or has been in their time, larger than life; who by dint of special gifts or endowments perform deeds of extraordinary courage and valour not possible for us ordinary men; a person whose legend escapes the limitations of their time and place and lives forever.

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