Rev Dr Knol­ly Clarke says lead­er­ship in Trinidad and To­ba­go has been turned in­to pub­lic re­la­tions. He said while he was not crit­i­cis­ing pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cers, lead­er­ship has been some­what trans­formed in­to "im­age-mak­ing." He said "a cer­tain qual­i­ty" of lead­er­ship is need­ed in the coun­try. Clarke de­liv­ered the ser­mon at the thanks­giv­ing Mass in cel­e­bra­tion of the life of for­mer Laven­tille West MP 72-year old Iris Eu­lalie James. She leaves to mourn her six chil­dren, 12 grand­chil­dren and three great grand­chil­dren. James died last Fri­day. She was a di­a­bet­ic who had her right leg am­pu­tat­ed in Cu­ba in 2005.

Clarke said James dis­played a cer­tain qual­i­ty of lead­er­ship while re­main­ing hum­ble. He said: "We have come here to cel­e­brate the life of one of the per­sons who has made a won­der­ful con­tri­bu­tion to our na­tion." He said peo­ple who were ma­nip­u­la­tive and had their own agen­das can­not be lead­ers. "The qual­i­ty of lead­er­ship is to serve, to make one's self avail­able to the peo­ple every­where and any­where," Clarke told the large con­gre­ga­tion. The ser­vice was held at the Holy Trin­i­ty Cathe­dral in Port-of-Spain. Laven­tille East/Mor­vant MP Don­na Cox and chair­man of the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) Franklin Khan de­liv­ered eu­lo­gies on be­half of the PNM Women's League and the par­ty re­spec­tive­ly.

Cox wore a white hat with yel­low, brown and black rib­bons in sol­i­dar­i­ty with dozens of women from the league. She de­scribed James as "a grass­roots stal­wart" of the par­ty who was al­ways in­ter­est­ed in the af­fairs of Laven­tille. Cox said: "Eu­lalie, I salute you as a sol­dier who has moved on but the mark you have left will cause you to live for­ev­er in our hearts." Khan said Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley was ex­pect­ed to read the eu­lo­gy but lost his voice fol­low­ing a meet­ing in San Fer­nan­do. Khan said James was a re­mark­able and true stateswoman who served the coun­try and the par­ty. He said she con­tin­ued serv­ing de­spite her pros­thet­ic leg.

Among the mourn­ers were for­mer Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning and his wife Hazel who re­ceived a hearty round of ap­plause when they en­tered the church hold­ing hands; Row­ley, Port-of-Spain may­or Louis Lee Sing and for­mer may­ors Murchi­son Brown and John Ra­hael; Op­po­si­tion MPs Dr Amery Browne, Ali­cia Hospedales, Nile­ung Hy­po­lite, Pa­tri­cia McIn­tosh and Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald. For­mer PNM min­is­ters Ed­die Hart, Di­ane Seuk­er­an, Joan Yuille-Williams and Camille Robin­son-Reg­is and Op­po­si­tion sen­a­tors Faris Al-Rawi and Fitzger­ald Hinds were al­so there.

SUM­MA­RY OF JAMES' BIO

•Deputy may­or of Port-of-Spain

•1994 con­test­ed the Laven­tille West seat for the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment in a by-elec­tion.

•May 27 1994 sworn in as MP

•Ap­point­ed par­lia­men­tary sec­re­tary in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter

•2001 ap­point­ed par­lia­men­tary sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment and Gen­der Af­fairs

•2002 again con­test­ed the Laven­tille West seat and won

•2002 be­came Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment and Gen­der Af­fairs

•2007 opt­ed out of gen­er­al elec­tions for health rea­sons