Toots Hibbert’s Family Upset After Botched Burial Order Postpones Interment At Dovecot

A botched burial order postponed plans to inter the body of Frederick ‘Toots’ Hibbert. Members of the immediate Hibbert family were disappointed and devastated that the burial order had not been signed, but at least one sibling, Jenieve Bailey christened the burial order faux pas as “divine intervention”.

“This morning, I chose not to attend my father’s funeral service, I couldn’t go to a funeral that would not honour my father or the people who gave him a career. I couldn’t put my signature to that, I chose to pray for God to intervene so that the people who gave him iconic status could mourn him and send him off,” Bailey, Toots’ eldest daughter, told DancehallMag.

After the post mortem is completed the police officer normally issues the burial order to the person responsible for burial. The police will then deliver the post mortem signed by the pathologist or medical doctor to the Coroner’s Court. This burial order had apparently not been signed by the relevant authorities.

Bailey said she had objected to the “private nature” in which the funeral arrangements were handled.

“All when we as Jamaicans don’t have it, we try to give our loved ones the best, and that private funeral was a travesty. Look what God did, He came in, that is God. I didn’t agree to any private funeral, it was a great disrespect to my father and who he was and the people who supported him. I stayed away and stayed on my knees and I had some prayer warriors praying with me and He answered our prayer,” she said.

“I am rejoicing, I know he deserved more. I am working with Minister Grange to ensure a big send off for him where his friends in the industry and his fans can celebrate him. By tomorrow, we shall have a date for the people to celebrate Frederick ‘Toots’ Hibbert the way he ought to be celebrated. I am elated that God stepped in for us, God was a people person, he was for the people,” Mrs. Bailey said.

But won’t Toots be buried tomorrow when the burial order is finally signed?

“I don’t know, I am celebrating and thanking God today. The man deserves to be in Clarendon. My family in Clarendon were not given the opportunity to share in his going home, my family called me and they were crying. Let us have faith in God, holding on so God can come through and honour our uncle and father. It is time to give back to him, Daddy deserved better, in Jesus name,” she said.

The private funeral service was held at 11 this morning at the chapel at Perry’s Funeral Home on the outskirts of Spanish Town, St. Catherine.

Toots died at the University Hospital of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica on September 11, 12 days after being admitted after contracting COVID-19. He was 77.

Hibbert was one of 10 finalists in the recent Jamaica Festival Song Competition — a contest he won three times with Bam Bam (1966); Sweet And Dandy (1969); and Pomps And Pride (1972).

He released his latest album, Got To Be Tough, on August 28.

Formed in the early 1960s, The Maytals’ 1968 single Do The Reggay was the first song to use the word ‘reggae’ and helped introduce the genre to a global audience.

Their popular songs include Monkey Man, Six and Seven Books of Moses, Pressure Drop, 54-46 That’s My Number, Beautiful Woman, and Funky Kingston.

In 2005, Toots and The Maytals won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album with True Love. Seven years later, he was awarded the Order of Jamaica by the Jamaican Government.