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Vilores Goodman Matriarch of Twelve Tribes of Israel Passes

Vilores Goodman twelve tribes
Vilores “Sister Vie” Goodman surrounded by family and friends.

By Howard Campbell

[KINGSTON, Jamaica] – When Vilores Goodman’s conservative parents discovered she was pregnant at age 17 in 1954, her furious father kicked her out of his home.

Goodman, who died January 31, was not just carrying a child. The father was Vernon Carrington, a young Rastafarian who founded the Twelve Tribes of Israel organization in 1968. Known as Sister Vie, Goodman bore him four children. Although they never married, she became the matriarch of a movement that has thousands of followers worldwide. Among its famous membership were reggae stars Bob Marley, Dennis Brown and Freddie McGregor, and soccer star Alan “Skill” Cole.

“She was the mother. She was extremely dedicated to Gad and a lot of people are wondering now, ‘how we are going to go forward’,” said Tashai Carrington, the youngest of Goodman’s children.

Prophet Gad was the spiritual name for Vernon Carrington, who died in 2005. After his death, Sister Vie helped hold the ‘Twelve Tribes’ together despite dwindling membership. Her workload lessened in recent months due to illness but she was a regular at the Twelve Tribes of Israel headquarters in Kingston, just a stone’s throw from the Bob Marley Museum. Vilores “Sister Vie” Goodman is survived by three of her children, nine grandchildren and several great -grandchildren.

South Florida Caribbean News

The SFLCN.com Team provides news and information for the Caribbean-American community in South Florida and beyond.

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