Education was the best means for our youth to overcome the struggles that her generation had to endure.
A Cuban beginning
Thelma Zenaida Ellis was born on 5 June 1923 in Havana, Cuba, the youngest of the children of Martin Luther Ellis and Maggie Adina Ellis. She was their last child, and the one who would carry their name across the longest distance.
A childhood in Berrydale
She came to Jamaica at the age of five and made her home in Berrydale, Clarendon. She attended Porus Elementary School. She did not have the opportunity to pursue secondary education — an absence that shaped her dearest dream for her descendants: that they would have what she did not.
Bicycle, basket, livelihood
She worked as a fish vendor and food seller, known across the parish for serving the workers of the Duckenfield Sugar Estate. Her dumpling, her fish, her ginger beer, her bouyo — remembered today by everyone who tasted them. She rode her bicycle around the district, wares balanced with the skill of long practice. Community members admired her resourcefulness; the people she fed remembered her kindness.
“A loving and caring person”
She was, in the words of her community, “a loving and caring person.” She helped many. She gave from what she had. She was very jovial. She gave sound advice. She was the kind of person whose name is still spoken with affection more than two decades after she went on.
She served the Jamaica Excelsior Society for many years, acting as liaison to the Kingston headquarters — a role that brought her into the wider life of the country and let her serve well beyond her own district.
Across the water, and home again
In 1993, after a lifetime in Berrydale, Thelma migrated to the United States to be with her daughters and grandchildren. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and in 1996 she returned to Jamaica, where she lived at the Milvaja Health Complex in Port Morant, St. Thomas.
She went on quietly in her sleep, at approximately 11:45 in the morning on Tuesday, 11 February 2003.
What we owe her
Thelma was known to those who loved her simply as Sixteen, and to many others as Aunt Thelma. This website — SixteenGenerations.com — is named for her. The family tree, the photographs, the recipes, the stories — everything you find here is gathered in her name, by the people whose lives she touched.
“This was my grandmother's dream, and now it is our promise.”
The Thelma Ellis “Sixteen” Foundation
Investing in education. Honoring a legacy.
Scholarships for students
Financial scholarships to needy students entering their first year of secondary school. The Foundation covers tuition, uniforms, books and supplies — removing the economic barriers so capable students can begin their academic journey with confidence and focus.
Support for schools
Direct partnerships with primary and infant schools — including Duckenfield Primary and Rural Hill Primary and Infant Schools — with donations of computers, printers, projectors, internet systems, books and writing materials.
You belong in her tree.
If your line leads back to Thelma — or to her parents, her siblings, her daughters, or any of their descendants — add yourself to the tree. Share a memory, upload a photograph, contribute a recipe she cooked. This is how we keep her alive.