Lagos society grand matriarch, Princess Mrs Lolade Sowemimo is dead. She died a few weeks ago; and has since been buried.

Princess Sowemimo, the octogenarian princess of the royal Akintoye family of Lagos, was the wife of late Chief Sobo Sowemimo, the Jaguna of Egbaland and past Chairman and Trustee of the Yoruba Tennis Club.

She was 82 years old on March 29 and at the time of her transition, was the head of the royal family of Oba Ibikunle Akitoye 11 of the Akitoye Ruling House of Lagos.

Ololade was born on March 29, 1933, at 17 Upper King Street (now Igadunganran Street) in Isale Eko to Mrs. Stella Adelabu Akitoye (nee Adewale) of Langbasa and Prince Olufemi Adeoti Akitoye, the third son of Oba Alfred Ibikunle Akitoye 11 of Lagos (1925-1928).

She was baptised shortly after birth at the Kings Church Enu-Owa Isale Eko. Her family moved to 35 King George Avenue Yaba Garden City in 1937 after a short stay with her grandparents at 84 Bola Street Ebute-Metta. As a result of the trauma of losing many of her children, her mother became over protective (she had nine children of which only three survived).

This delayed the process of her formal education. She was admitted as a boarding pupil at Holy Child College Obalende in 1948. Here, she made many friends within and outside her Class set.

She remained an active member of the fourth set class. Sowewimo travelled to England in 1954 and was enrolled to study nursing at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Edgbaston in Birmingham. After completing her programme with flying colours, she moved to Scotland to pursue a specialist course in gynaecology, which she also completed with flying colours.

In 1959, she worked briefly at the Bristol Royal Infirmary (one of the oldest Infirmaries in the U.K.), a city where her uncle Prince Adelumola Akitoye — the black Prince— had studied at the university several years before. The graceful and unassuming Lagos Princess returned to her roots in 1959 and was employed at U.C.H. Ibadan. Within a year, she was married to her heartthrob, the popular Lagos dashing legal luminary, the late Chief Sobo Sowemimo (SAN) at All Saints Church, Yaba. She transferred her nursing career from U.C.H. Ibadan to LUTH shortly after her wedding.

Born into royalty, royal in character, she remained devoted to family and friends.