page_title: Valerie Rodway
section_title: Personal life
hierarchical_section_title: Valerie Rodway / Personal life
caption_attribution_description: Map of Guyana for use on Wikivoyage, English version
context_page_description: Valerie Muriel Rodway was a Guyanese composer of cultural and patriotic songs, inspired by the events leading up to Guyana's independence in 1966. She is best known for composing music to accompany Guyana national poetry, like Arise, Guyana, Kanaïma, and the Martin Carter's Guyanese Independence poem Let Freedom Awaken. For the next two decades, school children were taught the songs she and others composed to inspire patriotism and cultural affinity. She selected the poetry for her compositions based upon her principles and values, first developed among her parents and siblings.
  She has been considered Guyana's greatest composer of patriotic and national music, and among the best composers from Guyana of the 20th century, generally and among composers of classical music. She was awarded the Wordsworth McAndrew Award posthumously in 2002. In 2019, she was awarded the Cacique Crown of Honor, one of the highest honors of Guyana. The National Trust of Guyana building in Cummingsburg, Georgetown, has been renamed the Valerie Rodway House in her honor.
  She was married twice, yet had no children of her own. She was described as a caring, good mother by her stepdaughter, Dr.
context_section_description: Valerie Fraser, born on February 12, 1919 in New Amsterdam, East Berbice-Corentyne, Guyana, was the fifth of eight children and the fourth daughter. Her mother, Jane Elizabeth Fraser, was born in Berbice-Corentyne. Her father, Newton Berthier Fraser, was born in Essequibo (now part of Guyana). Among the fourth-generation of mariners in his family, he was known as "Capo" because he was a captain and owner of schooners and sloops that transported goods in and out of the Caribbean. Within British Guiana, sugar was transported to Georgetown from plantations in Berbice. He transported rice, supplies, and passengers from British Guiana to Barbados. White marl was transported from Barbados to British Guiana, where it was used for Georgetown's streets.
  Parris Britton, her maternal ancestor, bought and held land that, following his death, became a source of income to his descendants. In the 1930s, the income-earning property helped the Frasers recover following devastating hurricanes—which destroyed her father's schooners and sloops—and throughout the Great Depression.
  According to her sister Lucille Wharton, Valerie, then a toddler, would wander away from the family’s home and visit a neighbour to "tinkle the keys" of the piano. Valerie had an interest in music, and her musical ability was developed by her music teachers—Edna Jordan, Eleanor Kerry, Winifred McDavid, and Ruby McGregor. She obtained a Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music (LRCM) from the Royal Academy of Music in London. She became a good friend of future musician Lynette Dolphin who, with her sister, were taken into the Fraser family home after the death of her mother, Clarice de Weever Dolphin, in 1936. Lynette influenced Rodway's musical focus. The Fraser family valued service to the nation, respect, tenacity, and concern for others.
  In 1958, as Valerie Warner, she married the poet and teacher James "Sonny" Rodway, a grandson of the Guyanese historian James Rodway. James Rodway's children were her stepchildren. Dr Cicely Rodway, her stepdaughter, called her a good mother who was gentle and kind. She had no children of her own. She died in August 1970 and was survived by one sibling, Ovid Fraser.
caption: Guyana regions map
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