Camille Clarke

Fam­i­ly mem­bers and friends of vet­er­an tele­vi­sion pre­sen­ter Allyson Hen­nessy are hail­ing her as a hu­man­i­tar­i­an.They al­so re­mem­ber her as a great sup­port­er of T&T's cul­ture.Hen­nessy, 63, of Pe­tit Val­ley, died around 10.30 pm on Sat­ur­day at the St Clair Med­ical Cen­tre in Port-of-Spain. She had been ad­mit­ted to the cen­tre since April 8 from an ill­ness which rel­a­tives have not dis­closed.She was co-own­er of the Veni Mange West In­di­an Restau­rant on Ari­api­ta Av­enue, Port-of-Spain.

The name of the restau­rant which means "come and eat" was giv­en by tele­vi­sion per­son­al­i­ty Hol­ly Beteaudi­er, her good friend, who over the years, co-host­ed sev­er­al cul­tur­al shows with her. Hen­nessy who was trained in the Unit­ed King­dom stud­ied cor­don bleu cook­ing and was in­vit­ed to share a tele­vi­sion cook­ing seg­ment on TTT.She host­ed the pro­gramme Com­mu­ni­ty Date­line for sev­er­al years, with per­son­al­i­ties such as Wen­dell Con­stan­tine, Judy Al­can­tara, Lisa Wick­ham and Judy Chong Den­ni­son.She co-host­ed The Box a dai­ly TV talk show on Gayelle, and host­ed many Car­ni­val ac­tiv­i­ties and events.She had been mar­ried to fel­low jour­nal­ist Em­mett Hen­nessy. In an in­ter­view yes­ter­day, Con­stan­tine said he worked with Hen­nessy for more than ten years."The broad­cast­ing com­mu­ni­ty is sad­dened by Allyson's pass­ing," he said."She af­ford­ed an op­por­tu­ni­ty to many young de­serv­ing tal­ents on tele­vi­sion.

"Her ser­vice to the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty should nev­er be un­recog­nised whether it be in sup­port of the Best Vil­lage pro­gramme, in com­mu­ni­ty ac­tiv­i­ties via Date­line or in the pro­mo­tion of cul­ture at Car­ni­val time."Con­stan­tine said Hen­nessy's train­ing in cor­don bleu led to her to open pop­u­lar Veni Mange restau­rant."Her train­ing as a cor­don bleu led to what is a per­ma­nent fix­ture in Veni Mange and her ser­vice to the poor in the com­mu­ni­ty was an ex­am­ple to fol­low," he said."We must nev­er for­get those who have made it pos­si­ble for oth­ers to suc­ceed. Her sis­ters were in­volved in the first in­clu­sive Car­ni­val fete to raise funds for char­i­ty."

Hen­nessy's close friend, Pix­ie Du Coudray, said they spent most of their lives to­geth­er tak­ing part in the same events."We went to the same board­ing school and joined the Mag­no­lia Hock­ey Club to­geth­er," she said. "She was our biggest cheer­leader. She would babysit our chil­dren while we played. We did a lot of Car­ni­val events to­geth­er and Date­line."She said Hen­nessy had love for women and was com­pas­sion­ate to their plight."It is a ter­ri­ble loss but in the in­ner cir­cle," she said."Allyson's heart is big­ger than her. She al­so cared for her mom and sis­ters, Judy, Rose and Sheila."

Her sis­ter, Rose­mary Hezeki­ah, said: "As fam­i­ly I be­lieve she meant more to us. We are heart­bro­ken and we know she would want us to con­tin­ue and be strong. She en­joyed life to the full and we need to con­tin­ue the work she start­ed."Hen­nessy's hus­band, Em­mett, said they had been to­geth­er since 1964 and were mar­ried 37 years. He was over­come with grief as he spoke briefly with the me­dia at the fam­i­ly's home at Monte Verde in Pe­tit Val­ley yes­ter­day.He said: "I feel help­less...I lost my best friend. She ran my life and now her sis­ter (Rose) will. I need moral sup­port so I am go­ing to their home (in Cas­cade)."He said he want­ed Allyson to be re­mem­bered as a lover of hu­man­i­ty."She loved every­body and every­thing in life...She was a good per­son," Em­mett said. (See Page A6)