Iris Pearl Greene

Iris Pearl Greene was born Iris Pearl Murray, on April 9, 1929, the year of the Great Depression, in the seaside town of Runaway bay, St. Ann, Jamaica. She was the daughter of Alfred Murray, who later owned Randall’s Hardware in downtown Kingston and Ida Shand. She grew up with her half-brother, David Shand and her mother in Brown’s Town, St. Ann, Jamaica. Iris attended both primary and high schools in Brown’s Town, where she excelled in her studies. Jamaica’s population at the time was little over a million and little girls were expected to get married and become stay-at-home Moms and raise children. But Iris wanted more. After high school, she attended Emily Dickinson Secretarial Academy and afterwards, landed her first job working with a prominent Brown’s Town attorney. From there, Iris moved to Ocho Rios where she met and married Percival Greene in 1953. Now Iris Pearl Greene, she had her first child, Marie, in 1954 at the age of 25. Between 1954 and 1965the couple went on to have four children, the aforementioned Marie, Patricia, Althea and Percival Jr.

Tragedy struck in December 1965, when, two weeks after the birth of her son, her husband took ill and died. Iris now had to care for four children, aged 11 to 2 weeks old and do this all on her own. Always the primary caregiver financially, Iris never missed a day of work. She was an executive secretary with the Jamaica Agricultural Society and the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation before returning to the legal profession, working with some of the most prominent law firms in Kingston---N.J. Fraser and Co., Livingston Alexander & Levy and Myers Fletcher & Gordon. In those days, before computers and word processing, Iris could type upwards of 80 words per minute, almost error-free. Her writing skills and English grammar were like those of a University professor. Her shorthand skills likewise, were impeccable. When Iris purchased her first home in 1966 at the age of 37, she did it all on her own and without any financial help from anyone. While most families at the time had two income earners, Miss Iris singlehandedly paid the mortgage, light bill, water, put food on the table and put four kids through school.

In 1984, at the age of 55 and previously having no plans to migrate, Iris decided to resign her job at Myers Fletcher & Gordon to take up a job as a nurse’s aide with a family in New Jersey, so she could help her 18 year old son who was attending high school in New York. After obtaining her residency, she filed for her unmarried children and grandchildren to come to the United States. And a few years later, after becoming an American citizen, she filed for her married child and unmarried grandchildren, as the law allowed, to obtain their permanent residencies. And today, because of the trail Miss Iris blazed, many of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are now residents and citizens of the United States.

Miss iris worked all her life enduring indignities from some of her employers but never allowed those indignities to get to her. All her life she was never bitter at the indignities she experienced. During her time working in New York, many a days she endured blistering cold to travel by train or bus to her jobs, again, never missing a day. When she retired and moved to Florida in 1997 at the age of 68, it was after a lifetime of hard work. Even in retirement, she would always be doing things around the house, whether making breakfast or dinner, doing the laundry, or caring from her great-grandchild.

On December 22, 2019, after suffering a stroke and being diagnosed with pneumonia, Miss Iris was able to overcome the pneumonia and say goodbye to her children and grandchildren one last time. She died peacefully, December 22, 2019 at the age of 90.

Frank Sinatra one sang: “I did it my way.” Miss iris did it the only way she knew---she did it all by herself!