Mrs. Zelmalee Francis Ebanks, Cert. Hon.

Sitting down with the enticing aromas of baking breads wafting about her and sipping some of her own exquisite freshly made lemonade is a rare occurrence for North Side stalwart Mrs. Zelmalee Francis Ebanks. Sitting down idly, that is!

This modest 66-year-old, who is the matriarch of a family well-known for its farming prowess and efforts towards Whistling Duck conservation, is used to making every hour of every day work for her. Yet Mrs Ebanks still finds time to spend with family, who come first!

She spends a large chunk of every Friday prepping for dishes that go on sale the next day at the Market at the Grounds. Then, the retired educator and thriving culinary entrepreneur is up at 1:00 am on Saturdays to cook and take her signature Caymanian fare to Lower Valley.

Far from being overwhelmed by the sheer number of dishes she prepares for the market, including conch, beef, Cayman rabbit and pork, Mrs. Ebanks, better known as “Miss Lee-Lee”, notes that she had stopped serving fish and fritters for a while but ”I plan to start serving that dish again,” she comments.

So what concessions does she make to acknowledge that she is a senior citizen now and has had a brush with heart disease? “I do more managing of the business,” she concedes.

While she undoubtedly enjoys the life that she and her husband have built, Mrs. Ebanks’ first love when it came to careers was education. This eldest daughter of six children went off to Jamaica to study education on a government scholarship.

She returned to be a teacher on Cayman Brac, then for 16 years at the North Side school at which she taught all ages in all subjects. After that, she moved to East End Primary, where she became the Principal and continued to teach for another 16 years.

Juggling career, family and the demands of her emerging business, Mrs. Ebanks also amazingly found time to continue her learning, earning a bachelors’ degree in education from the University of Miami.

During this time, she recalls having to attend five Parent Teacher Associations regularly when her oldest child was in high school, the next in middle school and the two youngest in primary school. Losing their youngest son at 17 shook the family to the core, but also brought them even closer.

Now her sights are set on another accomplishment – to write a Caymanian cookbook that combines her recipes with those of her inspiration, her “Aunt Phyllis”, whom Mrs Ebanks credits with creating many new dishes that she often got to test-taste. Explaining her wish to share her own culinary expertise, she quips, “Once a teacher, always a teacher.”

While it might have come as no surprise to her community, she was still pleasantly surprised to receive a call from the Governor, she says. She has earned the Cayman Islands Certificate and Badge of Honour for her services to both education and the culinary culture of the Cayman Islands.

Capt. Harold B. Banks, Cert. Hon.

For Capt. Harold B. Banks, a rewarding maritime career was the fruition of childhood ambitions and big dreams come to life.  Most recently these have earned him the 2013 Cayman Islands Certificate and Badge of Honour for his contributions to seamanship.

Capt. Banks was born in 1937 into a Little Cayman family. His father, the late Mr. Guy A. Banks, who once serve as District Commissioner, and his wife Vinolia raised their eight children on the tiny island. Capt. Banks recalls his childhood schoolroom school had only 12 pupils.

As the eldest son, young Harold was looked upon to continue the maritime tradition of the day. “Every man and boy was praying for a job on a ship”, he comments. When he was 16, the late Capt. Theo Bodden had allowed him the post of mess-boy on the Merren family’s merchant vessel “Amoa”.

Thereafter he was to become the first Caymanian second-officer, then chief and then captain, on board ships owned by National Bulk Carriers. He also completed formal studies, mainly at the Maritime School of New York.

His maritime prowess and commitment to excellence added to the Cayman Islands’ reputation for producing the world’s leading sailors – and also secured jobs for his younger brothers, cousins and other young men – some of whom became officers. He also trained many of them, and others around the world, as pilots and mooring masters.

Through diligent work and study, at the age of 24 Capt. Banks attained a Master-Mariner’s licence and began serving as captain. Three years later he was selected to captain the largest private yacht in the world at the time – the 295-foot “Darginn” (owned by Mr. Daniel Ludwig of National Bulk Carriers).

During the early 1960s he was offered the opportunity to train to be the first Caymanian airline pilot – but he maintained his commitment to a seafaring life.

“It was a very good life, but also a very bad life,” said the captain, who has become world-renowned. While he enjoyed seeing new places and cultures, the rigours included rough seas, storms and typhoons, and temperatures ranging from a high of 140degrees Fahrenheit in Arabia, to minus 40 degrees on research ice-breakers in the Arctic.

He lists international dignitaries such as a king, presidents, presidents and chairmen of industry amongst those with whom he became acquainted over the decades.

In 1977 he returned home as Manager and Chief Mooring Master of Cayman Energy, which managed the new oil-transfer business off the Sister Islands. There, he managed the ship-to-ship transfers with such dexterity that he received a written commendation from the US Department of Energy — specifically for his flawless night-time mooring during a moonless night. The official stated: “Your procedure of ship-to-ship mooring could be used as an example for others to follow”.

Capt. Banks’ came to be well-known and respected in the shipping circles of every continent except Antarctica. His last overseas dispatch lasted a decade, as he served as Chief Mooring Master and Ship-to-ship Superintendent around Asia, the Middle East and Autralia.

However, over the past nine years he has worked on Grand Cayman, as Bodden Shipping’s Chief Pilot for the cruise ships visiting Grand Cayman… and an occasional tanker.

An unintentional, yet undeniable ambassador for the country, his familiar whites and Captain’s hat are a staple on the George Town waterfront.

In the course of his work of meeting passengers from the cruise ships, he is often their first and last impression of Cayman. He therefore ensures that visitors receives a warm welcome and that they are encouraged to return as stay-over guests, and hands out thousands of personal business cards and other materials. The reward, he says, has been hundreds of phone calls to him by thankful visitors who have returned for longer stays.

In 2011 an official from the cruise-line conglomerate AIDA Cruises added to Capt. Banks’ many commendations. That document concluded: “The island of Grand Cayman, without Capt. Harold Banks, would be like the Caribbean without a north-east wind and sunshine.”

NOTE: Also attached is a photograph of honouree Owen Farrington as it was not attached with his bio previously published in iNews Cayman