Colourful newsman Ossie Cordner mourned
Cordner was an acquaintance of cabinet ministers and top Government officials, over the past half century. He was a Trini to the bone who lived life to its fullest.
Ossie Cordner was the quintessential Trinidadian, living life to the max.
Cordner, who died after a brief illness on the eve of his 75th birthday, was a veteran newspaper photographer who personified the classic newsman’s profile- hard drinking, wenching, overall riotous living.
There was a four-page pictorial of Ossie in the programme handed out to mourners at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on Tuesday. There he was playing fancy sailor in Jason Griffith’s band, playing football, liming with friends, riding his small motorbike and posing for a family photograph.
Slim and over six feet, he always looked half his age: perhaps, it was a mixture of his youthful physical frame and his sunny disposition- always smiling and joking and walking briskly. Therefore, it came as a surprise to many of his friends and colleagues that he was actually born in 1934.
“Cords” was a limer who hated to go home when the watering hole was shut and in his bachelor days wanted no woman whose weight was not 50 or 60 pounds more than his.
He began his career, some 46 years ago, with the Daily Mirror and became a close friend and sometimes confidante to cabinet ministers and Government officials over the years so that when he retired from the Express 15 years ago, he was readily employed with the Government information office.
He was an accomplished newspaper photographer and a mentor to youngsters who probably marveled at his energy and calm in stressful situations.
No one was quite sure that Ossie went to church but apparently Father Michael Makhan knew him quite well and sang his praises in his homily.
The photographers union from the Express and the Guardian- Steve McPhie, Vic Ramlochan, Noel Saldenah, Herb Jones, Andre Alexander, Maurice Brown, Lester Forde, Carl Sutherland and Irving Rauceo- was very much present among the almost full church of mourners.
Ossie is the last of that freewheeling breed of colourful newspapermen and he will surely be missed.