Rhona Cynthia Busby

Born on September 2, 1933, in Port of Spain, Trinidad, Rhona Cynthia Busby, née Thompson, dedicated her life to her husband Wallace for 53 years until his death, to her four children, Robert, Dawn, Kathryn, and Richard, and to her grandchildren Joanna, Hayden, Hudson and Declan.

A striking beauty, she worked in one of her first jobs for Radio Trinidad, and by the time she was 25, she caught the eye of her future husband Wallace. His friends soon recognized her significance to him as they saw the endless stream of photos that Wallace had previously taken of his many fleeting love interests turn steadily into innumerable and ubiquitous portraits of Rhona alone.

Rhona and Wallace emigrated to New York in the early 1960s, landing initially in Brooklyn, later moving to Queens, and finally settling in Scarsdale. From early in their marriage, the couple had a love of travel, and Rhona reminisced often about their trips to Europe with young offspring in tow: first with Robert as a baby, then with Robert as a toddler and Dawn as a baby, then with Robert and Dawn as small children and Kathryn as a baby, and finally with Richard as a baby along with three children aged under 8.

Rhona joined Pan American World Airways as a secretary to an executive at Kennedy Airport, and rose through the ranks until she was ultimately transferred to the Sales Department in the iconic Pan Am Building in mid-town Manhattan. While there, Rhona organized programs aimed at encouraging travel agents to book more business with the company, regularly leading promotional trips to various countries around the world. While she loved working for Pan Am, Rhona was clear-eyed about her reason for joining the company: to take advantage of the free or nearly free travel. And take advantage they did. From weekend trips to Trinidad and London, to family trips to Brazil and Greece, Rhona and her family were always on the move. Most important, her employment at Pan Am ensured that distance and physical separation would not weaken the bonds with family and friends around the globe. Thus, Rhona returned to Trinidad often, sometimes to play mas with Peter Minshall’s Carnival band, and, on occasion for Christmas, her favorite time of the year in Trinidad. And with Joanna on the scene, she and Wallace happily resumed the tradition of traveling with children, taking Jo to weddings in San Fernando and summer holidays in Paris.

As much as Rhona enjoyed traveling and returning to Trinidad, nothing brought her more joy than welcoming people into her home. A consummate hostess and cook, she hosted countless dinner parties for family and friends. The warmth of the house -- a warmth that both originated in and emanated from Rhona -- was palpable. The summer months were the busiest for her, with various friends and family making their annual pilgrimage to New York. All knew they were always welcome, for as long as they wished to stay, and that Rhona would pick them up and drop them off for the BWIA flight into JFK. Beyond hosting those visits, Rhona also was the surrogate mother to the young family and friends who came to the United States to attend university, making sure they had what they needed, as well as a home to return to during school breaks. Her most important role in this regard was as a second mother to her nephew Jamil, not just when he was in university, but also when he lived with Rhona and Wallace and attended Greenacres Elementary School.

The most important thing to know about Rhona, though, was the selflessness of her love that she expressed every day by doing for others. There was no favour too big, no task she would not undertake, if it would help, because she always wanted those around her to be happy and to bear as light a load as possible. She loved nothing more than taking care of Joanna when Dawn had to travel for work, and she was ecstatic that in her later years she could do the same for Hudson and Declan during Kathryn’s frequent work trips. Above all, she was always a mother to her children, even as adults, and she never ceased to look out for their welfare. As for her husband, Wallace always said that there could be no better wife on earth and everyone who observed her with him knew that was no exaggeration. Whether as a wife, mother, grandmother, aunt, sister, sister-in-law, or friend, Rhona was truly incomparable and loved by everyone.

Rhona was the glue that keeps a family together, representing an ideal that is rare and true: someone of unmatched physical beauty, even into an advanced age, who gave no indication that she was aware of her devastatingly good looks, someone who was universally adored by everyone in her life because they all had basked in the nurturing and selfless love that she so easily gave to all, someone whose only true happiness came from being with, and giving to, the friends and family whom she loved unconditionally and, as such, someone who was beyond reproach, because every ounce of her thoughts and her being was in service to others and not herself. In truth, Mrs. Busby was the most unassuming, generous and yet extraordinary individual you could ever meet.

Rhona Cynthia Busby passed away peacefully on May 5, 2021, at her home in Silver Spring, MD. In addition to her children and grandchildren, she is survived by her sisters Nancy Jané of Montreal, Canada and Elma Besson of London, England. Rhona will be greatly, greatly missed.