If you were an adolescent in the 1960s, 70s and early 80s, you probably know or have heard of Julie Coker. Till today, if your given name is Julie, people of that generation automatically add ‘Coker’ as a sobriquet.
Though retired, Chief Julie Coker remains one of the shining lights in the history of broadcast journalism in Nigeria.
Daughter of a Yoruba father and Itsekiri mom, and based in the UK; Chief Coker visits Nigeria at least once a year, shuttling between Lagos, Ikorodu and Warri. She returned to the UK at the end of February, just before the corona virus lockdown saga began.
Now 79, and very uncomfortable with the tedium of isolation, Chief Coker bent her artistic talents toward producing a video.
The video shows a youthful looking, merry grandma prancing as though it was her 60th birthday.
A former actress and beauty queen (she was Miss Western Nigeria in 1957), she was married to another broadcasting icon, Michael Enahoro.
One of their children, Richard, was diagnosed with sickle cell anaemia as a child and raised in London. He passed away in 2002, aged 29, following treatment for leukemia.