Luella A. Wallace-Daniel, 90, a founding member of the territory’s Independent Citizens Movement, died Feb. 16 at the Roy L. Schneider Hospital.
Daniel was also instrumental in obtaining John Brewer’s Beach for the people of the Virgin Islands, according to a release from Government House.
Prior to her involvement with the ICM, she was a founding member of the Shasta Democratic Club and the Progressive Guide.
Daniel was a well-known merchant in St. Thomas. She opened Daniel’s Variety Store in 1936 after returning from Harlem, where she had lived for several years and where she married Cecil Austin Daniel in 1929, according to the Daily News.
Over the years Daniel opened shops in Savan and on Main Street. She also owned commercial and residential rental properties in St. Thomas.
Her interest in politics was sparked while living in New York where she co-founded the Shasta Democratic Club with other Virgin Islanders there.
In the early 1950s Daniel spearheaded a movement to stop developers from preventing access to beaches and overdeveloping them — this at a time when environmental protection was not common.
"Mrs. Daniel loved her Virgin Islands and was very vocal in righting the wrongs as she saw them," Turnbull said.
Services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Monday at Frederick Evangelical Lutheran Church. Burial will be at Western Cemetery.
