The name Marie Grace “Petite” Augustin has become a symbol of female achievement, progressiveness, ingenuity, bravery and daring to the Saint Lucian female population.

The seventh of eleven children, Marie Grace was born on 2^nd June, 1897 to Jean Marie and Blanche Augustin. Her father was a planter and he owned Daubayan Estate in Patience, Micoud, in the days when cocoa was the chief money-making crop.  She was a very inquisitive child and enjoyed a happy and carefree life.  She loved animals specifically the cows and horses and was a very good horsewoman to the point where she could ride the cows bareback and even considered a career as a jockey.  Her parents had other ideas for her and sent her to attend High School in Antigua. She applied herself to her studies and gained an external certificate from the University of Cambridge in July 1912.  On her return to Saint Lucia she embarked on a career in nursing and by October 1918 she had gained her General Nursing certificate and also a certificate in Midwifery.

By that time her brother Elwin Augustin was a well-known Barrister and Marie Grace became enamoured of the law and decided to make a career change.  Therefore, she became articled to her brother and studied with him for four years with the intention of becoming a lawyer.  In 1923 she went to the Registrar’s Office to sit her bar exams but was refused by the Acting Chief Justice J.E.M. Salmon who informed her that the Legal Profession in Saint Lucia made no allowances for the inclusion of women.  Frustrated but undaunted she turned her back on law and went back to Daubayan where agriculture and all it entailed became the centre of her world.  She experimented with growing different crops and  she was the first person to grow coconuts on a large scale and to develop a copra industry.  When she learnt about refrigerated ships she immediately went into banana production for the U.K. Market.

In those days the journey to and from Castries took two days but an ingenious Marie Grace ordered a motor cycle from England and cut down the time to only four hours.  She tried different enterprises including setting up a Grocery store, a hotel and a clinic.

When a disease affected the banana industry Marie Grace chartered a sail boat and went to Guadeloupe where she obtained a shipment of banana plants.  These she planted and started all over with disease resistant plants.

Like everything else that she did she put her all into it and developed such an interest in agriculture that she read everything she could obtain on the subject and became an expert in that area.  Soon Government Officials were calling on her for advice and she was made a member of the Saint Lucia Legislature, becoming the first woman to hold such a position.

After the disastrous fire of 1948 people could hardly get furniture and it was Marie Grace Augustin who brought unemployed Cabinet-makers to her estate at Daubayan to train the local men in furniture making.  This became quite a large industry for the Augustins and gave employment to several men.

In 1955 Marie Grace was awarded an O.B.E. by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth for her contribution to the development of Saint Lucia.  She was sought after by many companies to be part of their organizations and she ended up as Director of: Coconut Growers Association, Banana Growers Association, Sugar Manufacturers’ Ltd., Copra Manufacturers’ Ltd., Agricultural Credit Fund and the Augustin Sisters Investment.

On March 30^th 1996 Marie Grace died at the age of ninety-eight.  Her life was definitely not that of a typical woman of her day.  She stood at five feet and weight ninety-five pounds but though small in stature was a giant among women and exhibited an indomitable spirit.