The former speaker of the Dominica parliament, Alix Boyd Knights, was found dead at her home in Trafalgar on Tuesday.
Boyd-Knights, an attorney, served as speaker from 2000 to 2020.
Upon her election to a third term on February 4, 2010, she became the longest-serving Speaker in Dominica’s history.
Boyd-Knights, a graduate of the University of the West Indies, was designated Speaker Emeritus in February 2020.
“It is so nice to be appreciated and I am very grateful to the honourable prime minister and the members of the government side and all those persons who have met me and told me I will always be Madam Speaker,” she said when the title was conferred on her.
She served also as the chairperson of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarian and the author of several papers and articles in the area of legislation and the formation of society,
family laws and land laws, women’s rights, rights of children, domestic violence.
She is also the author of the publication “Women in Parliament Dominica, Past and Present”.