Page 46 - BLACK HISTORY IN BERMUDA red

Cyril Eugene Cox • (1928-2004)

C. Eugene Cox was the Minister of Finance in the Progressive
Labour Party’s first cabinet following its historic 1998 election
courtesy government information services retired as Senior Vice-President in 1993. He also supported Sandys Secondary School,
win. He was first elected to the House of Assembly in 1976.
He had been an apprentice in the days when the British Gov-
ernment ran an apprenticeship scheme at the Dockyardwhich
turned out highly skilled artisans. He went on to McGill Uni-
versity where he received an engineering degree. A long-time
employee of the Bermuda Electric Light Company (BELCO), he

The Berkeley Institute and the Anglican Church Synod.

Johnny Barnes • (1923-2016)

One of Bermuda’s most colourful and beloved characters was
John James Randolf Adolphus Mills. He was born on June 23, 1923
and was affectionately known as Johnny Barnes. He was an
electrician and worked for the Bermuda Railway until it closed
in 1948, when he became a bus driver.

Sometime in 1986, Johnny decided to stand in the middle
of the Crow Lane roundabout and start waving and blowing
kisses to the passing commuter traffic, much of which flowed
past him into the City of Hamilton each morning. He would arrive at the roundabout
at about 3.45am and leave at 10am. As he waved and blew kisses, he would call out
“I love you” and “God loves you”, as he put a smile on countless thousands of faces
each day. If Johnny failed to appear, police and local radio stations would be flooded
with calls to check on him.

In 1998, a lifesize statue of Johnny was unveiled at the foot of Crow Lane, a rare honour
for someone still living. Typically Johnny joked, “Well, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy it
if I was dead”. In a 2011 documentary made about his life called ‘Mr. Happy Man’ he
stated, “We human beings got to learn how to love one another. Then there wouldn’t
be any wars, there wouldn’t be any killing.” It was a philosophy he lived by his entire
life. Johnny Barnes died on July 9, 2016.

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