Last farewell to Danny

Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter

AS IF it were a political event, persons turned up at Pedro Plains Anglican Church in South West St Elizabeth yesterday in orange, red, and a sprinkling of yellow to bid goodbye to Donald Buchanan, the man who served the constituency as member of parliament between 1989 and 2007.

Buchanan, who died on December 10, was buried in the family plot in Pedro Plains, but not before hundreds of persons braved the midmorning sun to pay their last respects.

The traditional black, which is worn at funerals, shared the spotlight with the People's National Party's bright colours on a day that peasants and king-like persons turned out to say goodbye.

Among those who bade farewell to Buchanan was former prime minister P.J. Patterson and Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller.

The opposition leader said Buchanan was never one to be ruffled by the way people perceived him.

"Danny revelled in the idea that he was thought to be controversial," Simpson Miller said.

Patterson, who led the PNP, of which Buchanan was a member, said Buchanan approached his work with a "fixity of purpose".