TLC Africa 2008

Mr. Rameses Porte, a former employee of the Department of Agriculture (now Ministry) and former Clerk of the Probate Court of Bong County, died Wednesday at the ELWA Hospital following a protracted illness. He was in his 84th year.

Mr. Porte served the Department of Agriculture for over two decades. In 1967 he was part of the delegation from the Department of Agriculture which participated in the World Trade Fair, Expo 67, held in Montreal, Canada.

As an Agricultural technician, he also traveled to France and Denmark.
Rameses Porte was born in Crozierville, Montserrado County, on February 17, 1925, unto the union of Moses and Ariminta Porte and hailed from the Township's Porte family. Rameses attended the Christ Church Parish Day School in Crozierville, and later Liberia College. In the late 1930s he and his parents settled in Gbarnga, then the Central Province, now Bong County, where they ran a successful business. It was there that Rameses entered the field of Agriculture and for decades served the Agriculture Department, first during the administration of John W. Cooper, then Secretary of Agriculture.

In 1953, on December 16, he took the hand of Ms. Williametta Clarke in marriage. When they celebrated their 52nd wedding anniversary nearly three years ago, Mrs. Williametta Porte recalled that Rameses' mother Ariminta had traveled from Gbarnga to Hartford, Grand Bassa County, to choose a wife for her son. The couple then began corresponding.

Then one day young Porte showed up in Bassa by boat to see the woman who might be his future companion. It would take another 15 years before the St. John River Bridge would be built. When Williametta heard that the boat had arrived that afternoon, she positioned herself near one of the side windows where she could spy into the front yard to see for herself the young man who was interested in her. On the day of their 52nd wedding anniversary, she told the Daily Observer that when the boat arrived, "I did not know whether he was black, bright, brown-skinned, short or tall." But, she added joyfully, "The minute I spied Rameses, I knew I had found my man!" The marriage has been blessed with six children and several foster children.

Mr. Porte is survived by his wife Williametta, six children, Mrs. Everette Ferguson; Mrs. Ariminta Gbaba; Rameses, Jr.; Alonzo; Ms. Saretta Porte; and Mrs. Vida Ncube; two daughters-in-law, Mrs. Leemue Porte, Mrs. Hearitta Porte, 11 grandchildren, two great grandchildren, several foster children, including Mrs. Oretha Kunyon, Hawa Porte, Mrs. Grace Cole and Ms. Roberta Korpo Weefur. Another foster daughter, Ms. Mary Hawa Ferguson, predeceased him on April 22, 2008.

Mary Hawa was a senior Nursing student who was due to graduate from Cuttington this
year.

Rameses' uncle Rufus Porte also predeceased him in Tennessee, 1998.

A memorial mass will be held at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church, located at Springfield Avenue and 47th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19143 in the United States on Saturday, July 19, 2008 at 5:00 p.m. while funeral services of the mortal remains of Rameses A. Porte, Sr. will be held in Monrovia on Saturday, July 19, 2008 at the Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Paynesville, Montserrado County, Liberia at 10:00 a.m. Internment follows at the family burial plot in Crozierville, Montserrado County, Liberia and the repast will be held at the Crozierville Town Hall, Montserrado County, Liberia, while refreshments for the memorial service in the United States will be held at the residence of Dr. and Mrs. Joseph Gbaba, Sr. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. The family in the United States can be contacted on the following numbers:

2153822829 or 4435463554