Pastor Henry Hank Whyte, of James’ Cistern, Central Eleuthera, passed away on Sunday, June 26th, 2016 at the age of 79. The Eleutheran had the privilege of sitting and speaking with him about his life and times in January of 2016. The following is a profile published following the interview.
Eleutheran Profile: Pastor Henry Whyte (79)
Born: February 2, 1937 | Died: June 26, 2016
(Previously Published in Print, February 2016)
Intro:
Widely known Methodist Pastor, Henry Whyte, was honoured in a special way during January of 2016 by the Bahamas Conference of the Methodist Church (BCMC) in celebration of his work in the Methodist church ministry during the past half century. Festivities began with an honourary banquet held on Saturday evening, January 16th and continued on Sunday afternoon, January 17th with a service of thanksgiving and praise.
The 79-year-old Eleutheran, who hails from James’ Cistern, began his work in the church back in 1965 as a 28 year old, local preacher in his home church, Wesley Methodist, James’ Cistern. He officially retired as a full time pastor in September of 2015, after a continued battle with prostate cancer, having survived an eight-hour surgery in March of 2015. In a relaxed interview at his home during the honouree weekend, Pastor Whyte expressed his trust in God to see him through his current challenge, and shared, “I’m dealing with it quite well, and I’m still content no matter what.” Pastor Whyte celebrated during the special weekend with his wife, Mrs. Henrietta Whyte, along with many friends and family members.
Early Days:
Henry Hank Whyte was born in James’ Cistern on February 2, in 1937 to his father, Herbert Whyte and his mother, Madge Louise Whyte, who were both from James’ Cistern. “Living in James’ Cistern wasn’t easy then,” he recalled. “We had to go to school at five, at the James’ Cistern Primary School, which at the time was just one room, and we had to write on the slates, and we would use chalk and clean them with spit. Not too long after we got to write on paper.” He remembered some of his teachers at that tender age, including James Rolle Sr., and Gloria Johnson – Finley (recently deceased). “James Rolle was a little bit rough, cause he used to beat me on my left hand from writing with it, and I ended up writing with my right hand. But I still do a lot of other things with my left hand as I work and bake,” he shared.
“We had the kerosene lamps, and had to get wood for the kitchen and the rock oven. Finally we got an oil stove that used to smoke, and we got a kerosene frigidaire that smoked. Daddy used to clean it out and everything. It was small, but Hatchet Bay was there and they would get ice from Hatchet Bay,” said Mr. Whyte, looking back in time. “My Grandpa also had a lot of animals, so they used to kill the goat or pig or ducks and chickens and would put them in the salt barrel and corn them. People also were more caring then, because family had to bring you up. If you did something in the road, they would call you and beat you, and you couldn’t tell your Mommy and Daddy, cause you would get another beating. Out of all of it, when I look back at it, I thank God that I’ve made it this far,” he added with a smile.
While still quite young, Henry’s family moved, following economic opportunity. “During the war, my Dad moved into Nassau with us, when I was still a little boy. Doing the Burma Road thing he found work, and – he did construction work as a carpenter. I remember when they used to have the blackouts, and you couldn’t put on lights or anything, and we had to be in darkness, and there was complete darkness all over the town, while we were in Nassau. We lived right on Nassau Street. I attended St. Bead’s Catholic School on Kemp Road while we lived in Nassau. It was good, we learned all about Lent and Hail Mary’s, and when you got into it you enjoyed it,” chuckled Mr. Whyte. “My mother was a Baptist until she married Dad – she was a Bethel from Big Hill, James’ Cistern, then she became a Methodist like Dad, and he was from Gibbs Hill, James’ Cistern. We didn’t stay in Nassau too long, because right after the war ceased we returned back home. It was about three years to the most,” he said – nodding his head as he calculated.
Back in James’ Cistern Henry returned to the James’ Cistern All Age School, but, because of family needs he never got the opportunity to finish. “Mr. Armbrister was the Head Teacher, and there were teachers, Mr. Knowles and Ms. Emma Carey. I loved school then, and when they took me out of school to go do construction – cracking rock at thirteen, I cried. But, I had to help my mother. My Daddy went on the Contract and never returned. He left when they were recruiting them to the United States and he never came back. Mommy had to work. She got a job in Harbour Island, and used to work at Pink Sands, and we had to walk down there to Bottom Harbour after school on weekends, to catch the sailboat and go over and came back, bringing groceries on our heads,” said Henry. He was the baby of five children, with four older siblings – Thelma, Hazel, Jack, and Livingston, and said he remembered his grandmother taking care of them while his Mommy worked in ‘Briland.
Pastor Whyte (5th from left) standing next to his wife and surrounded by his family, in January 2016.
Career and Family:
“I wasn’t able to take leaving school exams, I had to come out at thirteen – with little learning. I had to grow with my own wisdom and learn to make decisions, but I made it,” said Henry as he relived his boyhood memories. “It wasn’t easy, because working with older people, you had to be careful what you said and did – and you had to be an obedient child, or they would jump and call you “no manners”. So my boss (Sam McGerry) at the Naval Base, where I was cracking rock, was looking at me, and at the time I didn’t know what he was looking at, but he finally snatched me from there and made me a water boy. So then what I had to do was ride the truck out to the Base and deliver water.”
As the construction at the Naval Base waned down, Henry said he was taken on as a cook, inside what he called the PanAm building. “PanAm had the missiles going then, and they were tracking them, and had a station in the north, in Savannah Sound, and a station on Powell’s Pointe,” he described. “The building housed a well-furnished dining room, the kitchen was nice, and everything was there. It was all for the foreigners working at the Base, and we were like the servants.” By the time he turned sixteen, Henry said that he had been made a supervisor in the kitchen, and continued to work there right up until the Naval Base closed in 1980. “We had to prepare a full five-course meal every day, with soups, salads, two main courses, and desserts. My training consisted of watching the other chefs do their work, and a cookbook. I moved up by watching the foreign chefs, who were French, German, there was an American coloured guy, and they were always transferring in and out. So they came and went,” said Mr. Whyte. As a supervisor, he described having an office seat, and also teaching himself how to type, because he had to type up menus, and also took inventory and stock.
In 1958, Henry married his wife Henrietta, and the couple were blessed with seven children over the years (one girl, and six boys). After honing his culinary skills in his position at the Naval Base, Mr. Whyte decided to do something for himself as well, so he began to bake cakes and desserts, and cater for special events. “Over time I used to do all the wedding cakes here and catered on the side, while I was at the Naval Base. I never went over about 50 people, and I did house parties, and banquet hall events and others,” he said with pride.
Nothing lasts forever, and in time the era of the Naval Base ended. “My wife, was working with Mr. Jack Sweeting’s grocery store in Governor’s Harbour – she was the cashier. So soon after the Base closed, one Saturday he [Mr. Sweeting] pulled me aside, and asked if I wanted to work for him and run the hardware. I didn’t know very much about parts, but they had the books there and I learned, and made the orders. Some things were ordered just once a year from England, like the nails and steel – that shipped first into Miami and then on to here [Eleuthera]. Working with him was a good experience,” said Mr. Whyte, and added, “I was there until he sold it to Mr. Philip Bethel around 2000.”
While working at the hardware store Mr. Whyte expanded his entrepreneurial activities, and branched out into floral arrangements. He used to order his floral arrangements from Nassau Florist for the events he catered, and a friend Mr. Reginald Eldon, from The Current, suggested at one point that they partner and do the floral arrangements on their own, so they did. The flower shop business was opened in 1983 while also doing baking and catering and working at the hardware. As it grew into more of a family business, after the first year, the partnership was dissolved, but he and Mr. Eldon continue to be fast friends to this day, said Mr. Whyte.
Creating floral arrangements was something he really enjoyed doing, “I loved it. I like beauty and I like creating things – even when I was a little boy and went in the field with Grandma – I would create bouquets, by picking flowers, and would say, “here Ma”. Now she didn’t have time to look at flowers. She would say, thanks it’s pretty, but then she would go and continue on chopping or weeding,” shared Henry. The florist shop was located just opposite the hardware store where he worked in Governor’s Harbour, and over the years it grew, and locations were added in Spanish Wells as well as in Harbour Island. They did very well, said Mr. Whyte, but after many years, the boom was followed by a slowing down, and multiple factors led the eventual closure of both satellite stores. Up until his illness in 2015, Mr. Whyte said that he would still fill orders for arrangements, and still receives requests to this day.
Church and Ministry:
While still quite young, at the age of 17, a teenage Henry became a Christian while working at the Naval Base. He shared that from that time onward he made a serious commitment to the Lord, and nine years later, in 1965, he began preaching locally at his home church, Wesley Methodist in James’ Cistern. “I was interested in Ministry – I loved Ministry, and loved helping people. So that was an avenue where I could serve God,” he shared. He would go on to become the first Lay Person and the youngest person ever to become a Circuit Steward in the Central Eleuthera District of the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas (MCCA). As the Steward, he was responsible for the finances of the Methodist churches from Deep Creek to Gregory Town. Brother Cates in Rock Sound assisted, he said, and would take care of Rock Sound and South Eleuthera, and he would get the figures from him to update the ledger.
“I was offered an opportunity to go off to a training course by the MCCA in Jamaica,” reminisced Pastor Whyte, and described how he continued on attending conferences, seminars and retreats of the Church as often as possible to further his spiritual growth. He then completed a certificate in Pastoral Care from Emory University, and was ordained as a Lay Pastor in the MCCA in 1987. After the split in the Methodist Church organization and the birth of the Bahamas Conference of the Methodist Church (BCMC), in January of 1995, Pastor Whyte was ordained to the Pastoral Ministry in the BCMC and served as a full-time Pastor in the Central Eleuthera Region until 2004. “Whom God calls, He equips,” smiled Pastor Whyte wryly, as he recalled some of the early struggles following his ordination.
In 2004 Pastor Whyte was relocated to serve in the island of Inagua, where he said he spent some of his best years in Ministry. While in Inagua, he remembered building up the church, and the membership increasing, and said they treated him really well. Four years later, in 2008 he was stationed in New Providence at the Coke Methodist Church, where he spent the next two years until 2010, then he was moved back to his home island of Eleuthera, where he served as Pastor of the St. Mark’s Methodist Church in Hatchet Bay, as well as the Wesley Methodist Church in Gregory Town until his retirement in September of 2015.
Today, Mr. Whyte holds on tightly to God’s promises, saying that He has been faithful, and in return he has faith that God will give him strength, even in his current weakened state. He smiled as he shared a recent conversation with a dear colleague, Reverend Higgs, who he made a comment to, saying that if he had had the strength, he would do it [his time in the Ministry] all over again.
