Culture community pays tribute to Carlyle Babb

Well-known cultural activist Carlyle Babb died at 6.48 am last Sunday morning at the Mt Hope Hospital. He was 62.

His wife, Sharon, told Newsday yesterday, Babb was ailing from stage-four prostate cancer since last year.

She said when her husband first found out that he had prostate cancer, his spirits immediately plummeted. However, it picked back up when he began medical treatment, and feeling a little better, he thought there was some glimmer of hope for him. But in June of this year, “When he became bedridden his spirits went back down, because he was a man that loved to do things on his own,” she said.

She added: “The Prisons commissioner (Gerard Wilson) and the Prisons association president (Ceron Richards) and other officers were my moral supporters up to this day and a few of his radio friends like John Benoit and Darian Marcelle. I must thank all of them for this.” She said Wilson had actually assigned an officer to assist her with the registering of the death, and providing transport while making funeral arrangements. Sharon then spoke of the last moments she spent with Babb on Saturday.

“I knew he was going. Before, he could not talk all that well but on Saturday he told me everything he wanted me to do and that he was going because he was seeing clouds.

“When I told him no, don’t leave me he said, ‘Yes I have to go. My time reach. I am in too much pain.’

“Then he told me bring my ears. I didn’t want to, but I leaned in and he whispered to me, ‘We will meet in another life.’”

Babb was a prisons officer, but best known for judging national calypso competitions for years, from preliminaries all the way to the finals of those competitions.

He was also the man behind the Prisons calypso competition and getting the media to Carrera for the annual Carnival calypso competition. After retiring from the TT Prisons Service, Babb took a job with the Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC), providing security at City Gate.

He lived in a government housing development in Curepe.

One of his close friends who judged many a calypso competition with him, David Cuffy said of Babb’s death: “I was shocked because I hadn’t heard from him for some months. He would often make some odd posts on Facebook but that stopped some time ago.

“We used to judge all kinds of calypso competitions. Carlyle was a real calypso enthusiast. I’m so sorry he is gone.”

Trinbago Unified Calypsonians Organisation (TUCO) president Lutalo “Bro Resistance” Masimba” said for them at TUCO it is an extremely sad moment.

He said: “He was one of those persons who made a selfless contribution to organisations and by extension, calypso.

His love for calypso brought with it, a certain kind of energy and he will sorely be missed.”

Masimba then extended condolences to his family and friends on the sad moment of his passing.

Commissioner Wilson said even though Babb was a prisons retiree, he made an invaluable contribution to the service where calypso is concerned. “He was instrumental with our calypso programmes and was always ready to assist. He could be considered an icon here and I am happy to provide assistance where we can.”

For Benoit he said Babb’s death is a loss for the cultural fraternity since he had a vast knowledge of calypso and calypsonians.

Personally though, Benoit said: “I knew he had his challenges with the cancer but as a man it affected me because where Carlyle ended up, it could affect me too. I know Carlyle Babb years, a strong person, a culture lover and with a desire to be on radio. Eventually Carlyle and Gideon Maximin hosted a calypso show on i95.5 FM for years.”

Benoit said Babb’s death was also a loss for the community in which they both lived because the community would no longer see that bubbly personality Babb possessed.

The funeral is tentatively set for Friday afternoon, followed by a cremation at Allen’s Funeral Home in Arima.