“Georgie” from Bob Marley’s No Woman No Cry Dies

08/10/2021

George Headley “Georgie” Robinson, who was immortalized in Bob Marley’s timeless No Woman No Cry, died October 6.

Cedella Marley, head of the Tuff Gong Group of Companies, confirmed his death on social media.

“We lost our Georgie who kept the (fire burning) all through the night. Rest well Georgie. Fly away home,” she tweeted.

In No Woman No Cry, Marley sang about his tough times in a Trench Town tenement he lived with his family during the 1960s. He paid homage to Robinson with the line, ‘And Georgie would make the fire light, logwood burning through the night’.

No cause of death has been given at press time. But, Georgie was reportedly ill for some time and died at a nursing home.

He was believed to be in his late 70s.

For many years, he and Vincent “Tata” Ford were fixtures at the Marley Museum. Ford, who died in 2008, is credited as writer of No Woman No Cry which is from Natty Dread, Marley’s 1974 album.

Ford and Georgie lived in Trench Town which was an expanse of wooden shacks in the 1950s when Marley moved there with his mother from rural St. Ann parish.

Marley — who died in May, 1981 at age 36 — befriended both men who local lore claim took care of the struggling singer during his early years in the community.

The tenement that inspired No Woman No Cry is now the Trench Town Culture Yard, a popular tourist site.

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