Dame Elmira Minita Gordon GCMG GCVO JP (30 December 1930 – 1 January 2021) was a Belizean educator, psychologist and politician; she served as the first governor general of Belize from its independence in 1981 until 1993.

[1][2][3] Elmira Minita Gordon was born 30 December 1930 in Belize City, British Honduras.

[4] Her parents, Frederick Gordon and May Dakers,[5] had immigrated from Jamaica to Lucky Strike, Belize in the 1920s.

[5] She grew up in Belize City, attending St. John's Girls' School and St. Mary's Primary.

[7] Between 1977 and 1980, when Gordon was in Canada, she served on the Educational Psychology Programme Planning Committee and was a member of the Toronto Leather Craft Club.

[15] In later years, poor health prompted her to move to the United States in 2016 to live with her sister, Kelorah Franklin.