Amidee Preston "Six" Turnquest

Amidee Preston “Six” Turnquest Age 89 Years of Teal Street, Pastel Gardens, completed his earthly walk of this life at the Princess Margaret Hospital on Tuesday, August 11, 2026.

He was born at Deadman’s Cay Long Island, The Bahamas on Saturday, January 16, 1937 to Collins and Earline Turnquest. It was a time when island life demanded resourcefulness, discipline and hard work, and when children learned early that everyone had a part to play in the life of a family and community. Those lessons took root in Amidee and became the foundation of the man affectionately known as “Six.”


Amidee began his education at Shears Grant-in-Aid School before transferring, at about nine years old, to Buckley’s All-Age School, now N.G.M. Major High School. The school was more than three miles from his home, a journey he made on foot each day. Even then, there were signs of the responsibility that would characterize his life. He encouraged other children in the community to attend school and devised a simple system using rope and loops to keep the group together as they walked, making certain everyone arrived safely and on time.

At Buckley’s, Amidee was introduced to agriculture. He developed an appreciation for cultivation, order and caring for the land that remained with him throughout his life. His childhood was also spent exploring Deadman’s Cay with his cousins Lincoln, Glenroy and Sidney. Yet even in those early years, Amidee sensed that there was a much larger world beyond Long Island waiting for him.

At fourteen, he went to find it.

Amidee left Long Island for the United States, where his agricultural training helped him secure work as a plantation labourer. It was honest work, but he regarded it as a beginning rather than a destination. An opportunity eventually came to work aboard cargo ships, launching a career that would carry the young Long Islander across oceans and around the world.

For decades, the sea became his workplace and the world his classroom. From Panama to China and countless ports in between, Amidee experienced cultures and places far removed from the island of his birth. The work demanded discipline, courage and self-reliance, qualities that seemed naturally suited to him.

Whenever his travels allowed, he returned to The Bahamas. Short stays in Nassau were often spent with his cousin Lincoln, while longer vacations took him back to Long Island. He returned home proudly dressed in his suits, visiting relatives and friends and sharing stories of the extraordinary places he had seen. There was a dignity in the way he carried himself. The boy who had left Long Island in search of possibility had discovered that the world was much larger than his beginnings—and that he had a place in it.

But after years of travelling, it was during one of his visits to Nassau that Amidee discovered something the world had not yet given him: a reason to stay.

Her name was Eugie.

He noticed the beautiful, dark-skinned Hatchet Bay woman working at a restaurant on Prince George Wharf. Eugie was small in stature but overflowing with personality—warm, spirited, jovial and nurturing. Amidee was quieter, reserved and serious. They appeared to be opposites, yet something between them simply worked.

He affectionately called her “Shorty,” a name that would remain his for her throughout their life together.

Whenever his ship returned to Nassau, Amidee made sure to see her. Eugie, in turn, made certain he was fed, cared for and prepared for his next journey. What began as a romance between visits and voyages eventually became something neither wanted to keep interrupting with goodbyes.

After spending much of his adult life at sea, Amidee came home.

He retired from shipping, settled in Nassau and found employment as a stevedore on Prince George Wharf. On December 27, 1980, Amidee and Eugie were married. They established their home in Yellow Elder with Vernice, Sterling, Clyde, Dennis and Ginger, along with their first grandchild, Addis.

Marriage and family revealed another side of Six. He understood love as responsibility. The happiness and stability of his household mattered deeply to him, and he became a steady, resourceful and dependable presence within the family. He did not require recognition for fulfilling those responsibilities. For Six, taking care of the people entrusted to him was simply what a man was supposed to do.

In 1987, Amidee, Eugie and Ginger relocated to Freeport, Grand Bahama, to be closer to Vernice and her growing family, which now included granddaughter Jessica.

Grand Bahama became the setting for one of the most fulfilling chapters of their lives. Amidee worked alongside his son-in-law at Butler & Sands, while Eugie joined Vernice in operating a lunch catering business. Through years of work, careful planning and partnership, Six and Eugie purchased property in Queen’s Cove and built their three-bedroom ranch home completely debt free.

It was an accomplishment of which they were immensely proud, but the true value of the house was found in what happened inside it.

The Turnquest home became a gathering place for family and friends. Visitors arriving from near and far knew they had somewhere to stay, something to eat and people genuinely happy to receive them. Celebrations filled the property with family, friends, music and laughter, and over time Six and Eugie became a beloved couple within the Grand Bahama community.

Their partnership extended into their faith. They joined Mt. Zion Baptist Church, Eight Mile Rock, under the pastoral leadership of the late Reverend Dr. Raymond Jones. Eugie offered her gifts through cooking and baking, while Six became active in the Men’s Ministry, sang in the choir and gave his time wherever he could be useful. Their faith was not merely something they professed; it was something they practiced through service.

When Vernice and her family later returned to Nassau, Six and Eugie remained fiercely independent. Neither had learned to drive in their younger years, but Eugie eventually earned her driver's licence and purchased a car.

Six chose a bicycle.

It became his familiar mode of transportation throughout Grand Bahama. After retiring from Butler & Sands, he developed his skills as a painter and became sought after to paint homes and businesses across the island. His bicycle carried him to jobs, appointments and visits with friends, allowing him to maintain the independence he had valued since boyhood.

There was something wonderfully consistent about Six. Whether walking miles to school in Long Island, crossing oceans aboard cargo ships or cycling across Grand Bahama with work to do, he kept moving forward.

For more than three decades, Six and Shorty built a life defined by partnership. Their personalities were different, but their values were remarkably alike: family, faith, hard work, generosity and independence. Each possessed strengths that complemented the other, and together they created a home and a legacy that extended far beyond themselves.

Then, in 2015, came the loss that changed everything.

After living for years with diabetes, Eugie succumbed to complications from the illness. For Six, losing Shorty meant losing the woman who had been beside him through the most settled and fulfilling years of his life. The man who had spent his youth saying goodbye to ports around the world now faced a goodbye for which there was no preparation.

Later that year, he returned to Nassau to live with his daughter Vernice, who became his primary caregiver. As his medical needs increased, Six eventually became a resident of the Geriatric Ward at Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre. There, he found another community of caregivers who came to know him not simply as a patient, but as family.

In June 2026, his health began to decline significantly, and he was admitted to Princess Margaret Hospital.

On June 11, 2026, at 10:21pm with his daughters Vernice and Ginger beside him, Amidee Preston “Six” Turnquest quietly slipped from time into eternity reuniting with his beloved Shorty in the presence of the his God.

His was an extraordinary journey, though he would probably never have described it that way.

Through every chapter, certain things remained constant: his discipline, his independence, his quiet dignity and his unwavering sense of responsibility.

Six did not need to occupy the center of a room to have an impact on it. His strength was quieter than that. He belonged to a generation of men who often communicated love through what they built, what they provided, what they repaired, what they protected and what they made certain would endure.

And much of what Six built will endure.

It lives in the family he helped anchor, in the values he modeled, in the home he and Eugie created, and in generations who inherited something of his determination simply by watching how he lived.

He has gone from the shores of Long Island, across the oceans of the world, through a lifetime of work, family, faith and love—and now, finally, into rest. 

Amidee is preceded in death by his:
Wife: Eugelean Euphemia Belle-Turnquest;
Son: Dennis Smith;
Father: Collins Eugene Turnquest;
Mother: Earlene Louise McCardy-Turnquest;
Brothers: Godfrey, Fred, Nolvin, Sinclair, Ruldolf and Eugine Turnquest;
Sisters: Thelma, Norma, Wennie and Sharon Turnquest;

The Radiance of this “Garnet of A Gem” will always glow in the hearts of his:
Two Sons: Sterling Charlton Sr. and Clyde Fox;
Two Daughters: Vernice Smith and Montrea “Ginger” Brown;
Five Grandsons: Addis Huyler, Antonio Fox Sr., Sterling Charlton Jr., Sean and Andy Smith;
Eleven Granddaughters: Jessica Martin, Vanessa and Desiyah Charlton, Jasmine Fountian, Daniela, DeAsja and Dajah Brown, Daneha Bethell, Shakera Fox, Lanora Greene and Brenda Smith;
Six Great Grandsons: Antonio Jr. and Jermaine Fox, Sterling Charlton III, Rickey Stubbs, Ralf and Sean Smith Jr.;
Five Great Granddaughters: Jasmine Pinder, Shamara Johnson, Adriainique Miller, Rickia Stubbs and Jayette Greene;
One Sister: Inez Burrows;
Eighteen Nephews: Collins (Carla), Kevin (Lakera), Keno (Christian), Brian, Justin and Norris Turnquest, Mark (Dominique) and Sean Burrows, Fr. Richard Wood, Travis Thompson, Berty and Edward Carey, Jack, Ernest and Peter Davis (Carole-Gaye), Junior Hanchell, Brian McDonald and Shawn Cox;
Thirty-Five Nieces: Deborah Gibson, Rochelle Basden, Sandra Hudson, April Edomwomy (Fr. Jude), Dale, Joyann, Shantel, Dellerise, Laura and Christine Turnquest, Lisa Darville, Geraldine Williams, Melissa Thompson, Mellany, Marilyn, Deborah and Sheena Zonicle, Josephine Lopez, Christiana Russell (Julian), Martha Minnis (Clinton), Dr. Samara Zonicle-Newton (Roland), Clavia McClain (Samuel}, Pauline Claude, Shernell Gardiner, Wanza Munroe (Kevin), Min. Andrea Taylor, Linda Pinder, Machelle Sands (Desmond Esq J.P.), Joanna Curry, Indira Belle, Freeda Stubbs, Vivian Rahming, Laverne Saunders, Shellie Murphy and Sophie Kerr;
Cousins: Franklee Wilchombe, Andra, Ashwood, Rosie, Sherlock, Shervin, Sherlin, Andrew, Jeffery, Ovina, Brenda, Nora, Bertie, Verna, Ted, Joe and Shirley Turnquest, Carolyn, Annamie, Lyndy, Una, Mickey, Rosie and Donnie Burrows, Micheala Rolle, Anthea Gibson, Philip Brice, Berty, Emma, Robert and William Cartwright, Barry and William Wong and Shirley Smith;
Three Sisters-in-law: Patricia,Pathenia and Elva Turnquest;
Other Loving Family and Friends Including: The Turnquest, Burrows and Cartwright Families, Rev Agath Martin, Pastor Elect Rev. Ken Russell and the Congregation of Mt. Zion Baptist Church Eight Mile Rock, Grand Bahama, (Especially the Men's Fellowship Ministry), The community of Queens Cove, Grand Bahama, Bishop Simeon and Sister Linda Hall, The New Covenant Baptist Church Family, Paula Clarke, Patricia Rahming, Dr Arnold Davis, Bridgette Robinson, Curly Powell, Ingrid Bethune, Jeff Charlton, Rosa Fowler, Peter Bethell, Essie Fountain, Cyprianna Henfield, Carol Brown, Gerry Gaitor, Vernice Newbold, Lional Murphy, Verdell Cooper and their Families. the Family of the late Lorna Bethune and the entire Community of Deadman’s Cay, Long Island.
Special Thanks To: The Doctors and Nurses of the Geriatric Ward of Sandilands Rehabilitation Center.