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Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter

HE WAS a man who often used the maxim, 'The show must go on'.

Today, many Jamaicans and persons across the Caribbean will pause to bid farewell to cultural giant, master historian and educator, Professor Rex Nettleford.

The vice-chancellor emeritus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), who died on February 2, will be memorialised at an official funeral starting at 10 a.m. at the University Chapel in Mona, St Andrew.

"Rex Nettleford's life, achieve-ments and legacy have been so wide and deep and so we will, in fact, be celebrating them for a long time to come," Professor Barry Chevannes, chairman of the planning committee for the funeral, said yesterday.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding, Leader of the Opposition Portia Simpson Miller, a representative from the National Dance Theatre Movement and the Trade Union Congress will deliver tributes at today's funeral.

Carrying medals

Nettleford's eulogy will be read by Professor Emeritus Edward Baugh.

Meanwhile, unlike official funerals where pall-bearers struggle with the coffin, today they will be carrying only medals.

The party, made up of members of the Jamaica Consta-bulary Force, will carry his insignias of the Order of Merit and the Order of the Caribbean Community. The urn bearing Nettleford's ashes will be carried by one of his nieces.

And while throngs of persons are expected to attend the funeral at Mona, Gordon House will also place its focus on Nettleford's life.

Former prime ministers P.J. Patterson and Edward Seaga, as well as former chancellor of the UWI, Sir Shridath Ramphal, and sitting chancellor Sir George Alleyne will address the Cham-ber of Parliament on Nettleford's life.

daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com