Trevor Bur­nett

The four-time ca­lyp­so king Kelvin Pope, the Mighty Duke, died at the Eller­slie Park Pri­vate Hos­pi­tal (for­mer­ly Stan­ley's) at 1.05 pm yes­ter­day.

Duke, 77, was born in St Vin­cent and came to Trinidad at a ten­der age and lived at An­del Road in Point Fortin, be­fore mov­ing to Cap-de-Ville Main Road. Ca­lyp­son­ian Dr Hol­lis "Chalk­dust" Liv­er­pool said, "At this time words fail me, but I was hap­py to say a prayer at his bed­side with his son Con­sta­ble Wen­dell Pope and his wife Re­bec­ca, while he was go­ing.

"For the past two years he has been ail­ing, hav­ing had reg­u­lar blood trans­fu­sions as his sys­tem was un­able to re­pro­duce red and white blood cells," Chalk­dust said. "There are very few peo­ple in the en­ter­tain­ment world who have scaled the tow­ers of com­pos­ing and singing ca­lyp­soes like Duke. "Al­though Duke was born in St Vin­cent, he was 100 per cent Trin­bag­on­ian. "Every one of his ca­lyp­soes was a gem and I eas­i­ly re­mem­ber the al­bum Harps of Gold." Duke won the ca­lyp­so king ti­tle for four con­sec­u­tive years from 1968 to 1971. Liv­er­pool said Duke was tak­en to hos­pi­tal on Tues­day af­ter he was not re­spond­ing to a blood trans­fu­sion he had last week.

Chair­man of Trin­ba­go Uni­fied Ca­lyp­so Or­gan­i­sa­tion (Tu­co) Er­ic Tay­lor, the Pink Pan­ther said, "I feel very, very, dis­tressed with the death of Duke.

"We have lost an­oth­er jew­el in the crown of ca­lyp­so...We at TU­CO join with the rest of the na­tion in mourn­ing Duke's pass­ing. Slinger Fran­cis­co, the Mighty Spar­row, said, "What a shock­er! I nev­er knew him to be so sick to leave us this way. Wow, an­oth­er cham­pi­on has gone.... c'est la vie. "I did not know him to be bed-rid­den and did not ex­pect to hear of Duke pass­ing on," Spar­row said. "I guess he did it his way, and re­mem­ber he is the on­ly one to win four times in a row."