Tourism, conservation pionee
Known best for her free spirit and remarkable work with orphaned Giant River otters at the Karanambu Lodge, local tourism pioneer and animal lover Diane McTurk passed away yesterday at the St Joseph Mercy Hospital. She was 85. Though she did not go into detail, relative Melanie McTurk said the woman died peacefully in her sleep at the hospital early yesterday morning. She described her as a happy woman who was well-loved by all those who knew her.
In light of her passing, many persons took to social media to share memories and pay tribute the iconic Guyanese woman, well known as the ‘Otter Lady,’ while highlighting her work at the lodge and her vibrant spirit.
A partial biography shared by Melanie said McTurk was the second child of Rupununi pioneers Edward ‘Tiny’ McTurk and wife Constance, and their first to be born at Karanambu Ranch in the North Rupununi.
At age 5, she was sent to live with her paternal grandmother in Georgetown to attend school. Her education continued at a school in Barbados and was followed by schooling at Oxford.
After a brief dalliance with the theatre, she returned to the Rupununi in the 1950s and married Bob Milne, who was at that time a manager at Dadanawa Ranch, in the Rupununi. Unprepared to sit home with the other wives, McTurk spent months with her husband and the Vaqueros on roundups. A subsequent move to Jamaica would spell the breakdown of the marriage and McTurk’s return to London alone.
A successful career in Public Relations would follow, but by 1966 after a life “flitting back and forth across the Atlantic,” she returned to be part of independence and worked on the Hospitality Committee in the Independence Celebrations Office. Following independence, she accepted a position as the Press and Public Relations Officer with the Guyana Sugar Producers Association. In 1969, in the aftermath of the Rupununi Uprising, McTurk become recognised for her vocal advocacy on behalf of eight Amerindians who had been Lodge photo) arrested following the escape of the insurrection’s leaders to Brazil and Venezuela.
In newspapers of the day, she brought the injustice to the eye of the public and raised funds for their