Zelma Inez Edgell, better known as Zee Edgell, MBE (21 October 1940 – 20 December 2020), was a Belizean-born American writer who published four novels. She retired as a full, tenured professor of English at Kent State University. Biography Zelma Inez Tucker was born on 21 October 1940 in Belize City, British Honduras (now Belize), to Veronica (née Walker) and Clive A. Tucker. After attending St. Catherine Academy in Belize City (the basis for St. Cecilia's Academy in her novel Beka Lamb), Edgell studied journalism at the school of modern languages at the Polytechnic of Central London (1965) and continued her education at the University of the West Indies (1990). She worked as a journalist, first working for The Daily Gleaner in Jamaica in 1959, and later serving as the founding editor of The Reporter. From 1966 to 1968, she taught at St. Catherine Academy in Belize. After serving as editor of The Reporter, she returned to teach at St. Catherine for the 1980–81 school year. From 1981 to 1987, she served as the first Director of the Women's Bureau in the Government of Belize, and later as the Director of the Department of Women's Affairs. She has also lived for extended periods in such diverse places as Jamaica, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Somalia, working with development organizations and the Peace Corps. She has been director of women's affairs for the government of Belize, lecturer at the former University College of Belize (forerunner to the University of Belize) and she was an associate professor in the department of English at Kent State University, Kent, Ohio from 1993 to 2009, where she taught creative writing and literature. Edgell also toured internationally, giving book readings and delivering papers on the history and literature of Belize. She is considered Belize's principal contemporary writer. Edgell was married to American educator Alvin George "Al" Edgell (1924–2020), who had a decades-long career in international development. They raised two children, Holly, a journalist, and Randall, a physician specializing in stroke treatment and prevention. Edgell contributed extensively to the Belizean Writers Series, published by local publishing house Cubola Productions. She edited and contributed stories to the fifth book in the series, Memories, Dreams and Nightmares: A Short Story Anthology of Belizean women writers, published in 2004. In 2020, Edgell died at her home in St. Louis, Missouri, at the age of 80. A remembrance ceremony for Edgell was